Archbishop André Perraudin, M. Afr. (7 October 1914 - 25 April 2003) was a Swiss Catholic clergyman who lived in
Rwanda
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...
for nearly fifty years.
He was Archbishop of
Kabgayi from 1959 to 1989.
Career
André Perraudin was born on 7 October 1914 in
Bagnes
Bagnes is a former municipality in the district of Entremont in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipalities of Bagnes and Vollèges merged to form the new municipality of Val de Bagnes.
With an area of , ...
, in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
He began studying under the
White Fathers
The White Fathers (), officially known as the Missionaries of Africa (), and abbreviated MAfr, are a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right (for men). They were founded in 1868 by Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie, who w ...
in the fall of 1926, and was ordained a priest on 25 March 1939.
He became the founder and director of the White Father's African House at
Fribourg
or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...
.
On 2 December 1947 he left for Burundi, where he learned the local language while serving in missions at Kiganda and
Kibumbu.
In June 1950 he was appointed professor of theological dogma at the
Major Seminary of Nyakibanda in Rwanda.
He was appointed rector of the seminary in October 1952.
On 18 December 1955 he was elevated to Bishop by
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
, and became Vicar Apostolic of Nyundo (Kabgayi) on 25 March 1956.
He was appointed Archbishop of Kabgayi, Rwanda on 10 November 1959, holding this position until his retirement on 7 October 1989; Kabgayi was downgraded to diocese in 1976, and he continued as Archbishop (personal title).
He died on 25 April 2003 in
Sierre
Sierre (; ; ) is the capital municipality of the district of Sierre, located in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a population of 18,020.
Sierre is nicknamed City of the Sun () for its average of 300 days of sunshine a year.
It is t ...
.
February 1959 Pastoral letter
In his pastoral letter of 11 February 1959 the Bishop, concerning social justice, wrote in part: "In our Rwanda, differences and social inequalities are to a large extent related to differences in race, in the sense that the wealth on the one hand and political and even judicial power on the other hand, are to a considerable extent in the hands of people of the same race."
In a context of strong tensions between the subordinate
Hutu
The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...
majority and the
Tutsi
The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...
elite, these remarks reinforced the support of the Rwandan Catholic Church for the claims of the Hutus for compensation.
They were perceived by part of the population as a declaration of war against the Tutsi power and, subsequently, as a form of moral justification for the first massacres of Tutsis that followed in the region of
Kabgayi in November 1959.
The letter marked a turning point in the history of Rwanda. At this stage of Rwandan history, the written debate on political issues was important like never before. His letter came after the Tutsi-supremacist "Statement of Views", the Hutu-supremacist "Bahutu Manifesto" and the Voici les details de l'histoire. All of these written materials were influential in Rwandan politics of the 1950s and after.
Publications
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Perraudin, Andre
White Fathers priests
1914 births
2003 deaths
Swiss Roman Catholic archbishops
People from Valais
20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Rwanda
Roman Catholic bishops of Kabgayi