16-6-2025
A Congolese Customs officer Floribèrt Bwana Chui Bin Kositi who was killed for refusing to accept a bribe has been beatified by the Vatican.
Floribèrt Bwana Chui Bin Kositi was elevated to the status of a saint Sunday in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the head of the Vatican’s saint-making office at the St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Rome’s basilicas.
The event attracted Congolese pilgrims and much of Rome’s Congolese Catholic community. They will also attend a special audience on Monday with Pope Leo XIV.
Mr Kositi was kidnapped and killed in 2007 after he refused to allow rancid rice from Rwanda to be transported across the border to Goma, a city in eastern Congo.
As an official with the Congolese government’s customs quality control office, the 26-year-old was aware of the dangers of resisting bribes offered to public officials. However, he also recognised the dangers of allowing spoiled food to be distributed to the most vulnerable.
“On that day, those mafiosi found themselves in front of a young man who, in the name of the Gospel, said ‘No.’ He opposed,” his friend Aline Manani said.
“Floribèrt, I think that for me personally, I would say for all young people, is a role model.”
Late Pope Francis recognised Mr Kositi as a martyr of the faith in late 2024, setting him on the path to beatification and to possibly become Congo’s first saint.
“Our country almost holds the gold medal for corruption among the countries of the world,” Goma Bishop Willy Ngumbi told reporters.
“Here, corruption is truly endemic. So, if we could at least learn from this boy’s life that we must all fight corruption … I think that would be very important.”