As of the writing of this post, it is April 7, 2013 in Kigali: Genocide day in Rwanda. For a period of about a hundred days, between 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsi were killed at a rate of about 7 deaths per minute.
According to Wikipedia:
Most of the victims were killed in their own villages or in towns, often by their neighbors and fellow villagers. The militia typically murdered victims by machetes, although some army units used rifles. The Hutu gangs searched out victims hiding in churches and school buildings, and massacred them. Local officials and government-sponsored radio incited ordinary citizens to kill their neighbors, and those who refused to kill were often murdered on the spot. "Either you took part in the massacres or you were massacred yourself."
Imagine yourself living through such a hellish situation. Everyone around you is either killing or being killed. You have to decide: is it your responsibility as a Catholic to try and save others, even though it would very likely cost you your life? Even abstaining from killing may have earned you death. If we are to follow the examples of Christ and the martyrs, then our only option is heroic martyrdom, but are we all meant to die for our beliefs?
This is a critical question: do we just need to abstain from evil in order to be good Catholics, or must we instead strive to do good, even at great personal cost.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, as I believe it is a very important question.
