Courage of African clergy and laity

Til" admirable courage and dignity " shown by the African clergy and laity in intervening to protect Europeans from violence was described by the Catholic religious progranune on Brussels Radio last Sunday.
As we reported last week, the general picture is that the missionaries are staying at their posts and that the colour of their skins has not discredited them in the eyes of the Congolese whom they are serving.
European Sisters and women lay auxiliaries are only leaving their posts when ordered to do so by their bishops, their temporary departure being the occasion of great sadness among the Africans whom they have helped.
The most unsettled area is still the Lower Congo, from Leopoldville to the sea. Reports from Mayombe, in the diocese of Boma, say that the missionaries and Sisters have stayed put and are being protected by the " police " of Abako, M. Kasavubu's party.
Refugees
The Sisters of Charity of Ghent at Thysville, where the mutiny of the Force Publique assumed its ugliest form, have arrived at Leopoldville under the protection of M. Gaston Diomi, vice-president of the provincial Government. The Redemptorist Fathers and a doctor have stayed put at Thysville, but two Redemptorists were molested by mutineers at Kole. Taken to Thysville, they were freed there by M. Diomi.
The Sisters of Our Lady of Namur from Kisantu and nearby, as well as the hospital Sisters from Kisantu, have also arrived in the capital. They were led by Bishop Kimbondo, auxiliary of Kisantu, and Fr. Matota, S.J.
Reports state that the population of the Lower Congo are strongly opposed to the anti-European feeling shown by the mutinous Congolese soldiers, all of whom come from different regions. (It was Belgian policy to post soldiers of the Force Publique to provinces other than their own).
At Lulu.abourg, the capital of Kasai province, all the missionaries, Sisters, and lay auxiliaries have stayed at their posts and have not been disturbed. At Albertville, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, the White Fathers are said to be carrying on, and at Bukayu and Goma, farther north, the lay social workers are continuing their normal activities.
Ugly
But an ugly incident is reported from the Mill Hill Fathers' diocese of Basankusu in Equator province. where Sisters at the mission at Djolu were raped and priests beaten up. The " Daily Express" last Friday carried an account of this by Fr. John Deen, a Dutch Mill Hill Father who was evacuated to Leopoldville.
Also in the Basanbusu diocese, the Sacred Heart Sisters from Boende have been evacuated to Belgium via Leopoldville.
At Banningville, to the northeast of the capital where all the Europeans have left the missionaries and the Sisters are reported to have stayed put.
At Leopoldville itself the archbishop has ordered the evacuation of women and children from the Catholic University of the Lovaniurn but all the teaching staff are at work and examinations are going on normally.
Last week before the arrival of the first U.N. troops Bishop Malula the Congolese auxiliary of Leopoldville accompanied by a Belgian army chaplain stopped patrols of Belgium and Congolese soldiers on the main Boulevard Albert and urged them to fraternise.
Many of the Congolese mutineers knelt before the bishop reported "The Times" and groups of civilians black and white, watched and cheered.
In Belgium, the Belgian I-fierarchy have appealed to the nation " not to judge the feelings of the vast majority of the African population by the unspeakable actions of a few " and not to include in their condemnation the Congolese in Belgium. The joint letter, published on Saturday by Cardinal van Roey and the other Belgian bishops, called upon the Belgians to demonstrate their charity to the refugees from the Congo.
Bishop van Cauwelaert, C.I.C.M., of Inongo, to the north of Banningville, has decided as a security measure on the temporary evacuation to Belgium of European Sisters working in several extremely isolated mission stations. Their departure has been lamented by the Africans. Congolese Sisters in this diocese are not being evacuated.
A message from the Augustinian Sisters at Port Francqui and Mweka in Kasai province says that they are all well and have not been disturbed.