During his first visit to Africa in 2015, during which he opened the gate of the cathedral in Bangui on the occasion of the special Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis was asked how he stood on the corruption that is ubiquitous in Africa. He compared it to sugar, which at first glance gives a pleasant taste and is very easy to ingest, but when one ingests too much of it can cause diabetes in which finally the whole country can be ravaged by this disease. But what if everyone and everywhere, as it were, is infected by this corruption? His answer to this was very clear: “Start fighting this corruption yourself: in your heart, in your life, in your environment, in your country: start! Corruption is not a road to life, but a road to death!”

This remarkable thought came to me during the ceremony at which Floribert Bwama Chui of Goma was beatified on June 15, 2025, in St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome. For a moment we imagined ourselves in the Congo, surrounded by the singing Congolese dressed in their multicolored dresses and shirts with images of the new blessed one. When the beatification was pronounced, the curtain that hung over the painting set up at the front beside the altar fell and young Floribert appeared surrounded by street children he cared for, and in the background, the Nyiragongo volcano which, when it erupted in 2002, covered and destroyed much of Goma with lava.

Floribert Bwana Chui’s life took place in North Kivu, in the city of Goma, near the border with Rwanda, where he was killed on July 8, 2007, at the age of just 26. Why? Because he did not want to do what supposedly everyone else did: participate in the corruption that ruled and still rules there as a system. His radical choice– to say no to an offer made to him to allow corrupt goods to cross the border from Rwanda, on the condition of receiving a bribe– was in line with his whole way of life, in which honesty had a prominent place. It was a virtue which he lived heroically and which led him to martyrdom.

He was born on June 13, 1981, in Goma, a city that was anything but peaceful because of a latent war situation that had already disrupted the entire Kivu region for a long time. This environment was anything but conducive to a balanced upbringing: children and young people face violence, risk being kidnapped as child soldiers, women are raped by the foreign militia, and groups of residents try to flee the region and live in camps. It is a situation where, ultimately, a human life has very little value. This part of Congo, rich in minerals, is being exploited by foreign powers while most of the population languishes in poverty. Goma has become a city of millions wedged between the aforementioned volcano and Lake Kivu, which has already had to be rebuilt several times after an eruption. The last major eruption in 2002 wiped more than half of the city off the map, and the cathedral was also destroyed; only the walls remain standing today. It is this place that will now be built out as a memorial chapel for our new blessed one.

Floribert grew up in a family of 11 children, of which the father, Deogratias, was a bank clerk and the mother was a police officer. Even though his parents would eventually separate, his childhood was marked by a certain stability with the possibility of being able to follow a fairly normal educational path from elementary school, through secondary school to higher education in the Jesuit lyceum, where he graduated in commercial sciences. He realized that this made him part of the elite who would hopefully be able to hold good positions later. But at the same time, he also took his Christianity very seriously and took an active part in parish life. There he began to work for the street children who lived a more than chaotic life in Goma. At the same time, he became acquainted with the Sant’Egidio movement that also spread in Africa around the 1980s, bringing young people together and encouraging them to make a difference with their lives in the situation in which they found themselves. He took his studies very seriously and making full use of the abilities he had been given, he seriously prepared himself to become a future leader and to make a difference in the political sphere as well. Of course, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 did not go unnoticed by the young man, and Goma became the scene of a flood of refugees fleeing the ethnic violence. This sharpened ethnic differences that grew into true antagonisms among many and created a climate of mutual distrust. Within the growing Sant’Egidio group, everything was done to counter the latter, and by bringing together young people from different regions, meetings that became real inspirations for Floribert, they tried to build a more just and peaceful society. Working for justice and peace in a society marked by ethnic differences, exploitation and corruption became a life vocation for Floribert. From the year 2000 on, the meetings with Sant’Egidio became the place where Floribert was always able to meet and get to know new friends, and with all of them he stood out for his wise spirit and his enthusiastic faith that profoundly marked his life.

During the volcanic eruption on January 17, 2002, in which his family lost their home, Floribert was one of the active collaborators to initiate relief operations. There he learned about several international aid organizations and also the difficulties they faced because of the corruption that often prevented aid supplies from reaching their proper place. This outraged the young man very strongly, and perhaps that is where his aversion to any form of corruption was born. He came to the conviction that only personal conversion could provide the basis for overcoming these unjust structures. During these relief activities he got to know even more people, including the street children who now wandered aimlessly in and around Goma even more than before. Knowing them was more than a distant greeting; he tried to build warm human contacts. So it was that many of these children came to regard him as a true friend. One of them, named Jonathan, who had arrived in Goma as a refugee from Bukavu and had no one at all to give him shelter, was taken in by Floribert and helped to continue his studies. Floribert wanted to help and would help many; some of them very personally.

In December 2005, Floribert received his law degree in which he did a study on the conflicts taking place in his hometown and how international agreements could help manage them. He felt the time was ripe to get involved politically as well. Based on his scientific background that he had formed, and backed by his Christian convictions, he wanted to help his country politically to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty, injustice and war. In 2006, he was able to do an internship in Kinshasa where he had the opportunity to hold a staff position at the national customs. As tempting as it was to stay in the capital and build a more secure life there, Floribert decided to put aside any such offer and return to his home in Goma. Meanwhile, the living situation there had not improved, and the unrest caused by the various militia groups made life in Goma anything but safe. His family urged him to stay in Kinshasa, but Floribert returned to Goma in April 2007, where he was given the job of monitoring the transport of goods from abroad to ensure that no tainted goods were transferred that could endanger the health of the population. It was a delicate assignment, given the attempts to bribe customs officials to avoid confiscating peddled goods, especially food items, and destroying them on the spot. Very soon Floribert was confronted with this, but immediately he turned down any offers of corruption, concerned only for the welfare of his people whose health could be harmed by tainted food. He found himself facing a mountain of corruption which he knew he alone could never win the battle. But giving in to corruption was the last thing on his mind. He realized that his stubborn refusal to take bribes would not clean up the system, but his example might at least make some people think. All around him he saw the corruption had really grown into a system and how everyone, from high to low, eagerly participated in it. Doctors accepted bribes from patients for medical care, soldiers were out to pressure the population and threaten them if they did not accept their proposals. “On se débrouille,” had become the established expression that was heard everywhere, meaning trying to survive by turning a blind eye to corruption at all levels and turning a blind eye to it oneself. At the same time, he also understood how dangerous the situation was if he accepted the criminal offer that would be made to him and that his life might be in danger. So this happened very soon after his arrival in Goma, where he radically resisted accepting a sum of $2,000 to let through a cargo of 815 bags of rice that were no longer fit for consumption. This was worth $22,000 and had to be destroyed as a result. Then they increased the amount of the bribe even more, each time hoping that he would succumb to the temptation. But Floribert remained steadfast and commanded that the goods be destroyed, as provided by law. To his immediate bystanders he declared that, as a Christian, he could not accept that one would endanger the lives of many people with these goods, and that he was willing to die rather than succumb to corruption. These words had barely been spoken, when on Saturday afternoon, June 7, Floribert was met by strangers and taken away. It was the next day that he was found murdered, with obvious signs of torture. His teeth were knocked out and he suffered heavy wounds to his genitals. Immediately they tried to spread the news that Floribert had been killed for political reasons, in order to thwart a more precise investigation around the true cause. So, corruption even hindered the investigation into his death!

Just as Rosario Livatino fell as a martyr at the hands of the mafia in Sicily in 1990, we can also consider Floribert Bwana Chui as a martyr who fell victim to pervasive corruption. Both succumbed neither to money nor injustice, but from their deeply religious convictions they gave the last word to justice at the cost of their lives. They are modern saints who can set us on the path to resist the many temptations offered to us from our environment. They take us away from our ambitions in life to participate instead, through our pursuit of our own holiness, in the sanctification of the world: a world where justice and peace have the last word. Blessed Floribert Bwana Chui, thank you for your generosity and may your example encourage many to go to war against corruption themselves!

Bro. René Stockman,
Congregation of the Brothers of Charity