Vatican City, Mar 13, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- She begged and scrounged for food in the forest; she drank water from a stream with dead bodies in it; she wrapped grass on her feet in order to walk long distances in the hot sun in order to survive, facing starvation and malnourishment, all before the age of six.
Now, Mirreille Twayigira is a licensed medical doctor hoping not just to save lives, but to inspire young women worldwide – particularly those in her same situation – by showing them there’s hope, and that life is more than the tragedies they face.
While some might label her life “a tragic story” due to the suffering and loss she faced as a young child, Twayigira said others might choose to call it “a story of courage and perseverance.”
However, “I choose to call it a story of hope, a story of God…from ashes to beauty, (like) a beautiful stained glass window.”
Twayigira was among several speakers at the March 8 Voices of Faith women’s gathering in the Vatican, marking International Women’s Day.
First held in 2014, the VoF conference was established in response to Pope Francis’ call to “broaden the space within the Church for a more incisive feminine presence.”
Gathering women from around the world, this year’s VoF took place at the Vatican’s Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, and featured testimonies of women from around the world, including Syria and Burundi, who shared their stories of perseverance, highlighting the importance of building peace in a world filled with conflict.
In her testimony, Twayigira noted that when war broke out between Tutsis and members of the Hutu majority the government, leading to mass killings of the Tutsi tribe, she was just three years-old.
Although she doesn’t remember much about the war itself when it started, she remembers the day she got the news that her father had been killed.
“I remember being told that my father had been killed, his body being brought home wrapped in this blue tent,” she said, noting that she was too young to fully understand what was happening on the day of his burial.
Before the war, “we were a big, happy family. Our house was next to our grandparent’s house, so my sister and I used to spend our days with uncles and aunts…so it was a beautiful and happy childhood,” she said.
After her father’s death, however, this changed dramatically.
“My family knew that it was no longer safe for us, so they had to pack and leave,” she said, explaining that at first, they fled to another district of Rwanda, thinking they would be safe.
However, after just a short time her younger sister, who was just one-year-old at the time, got sick and, because her family didn’t have access to medicine or proper nourishment due to the war, she passed away.
After her sister’s death – which marked the second time she had lost a sibling, since an older sister had died before Twayigira was born – the family fled through Burundi to a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“In the camp I was a very happy kid,” she said, “but this all ended when I encountered more loss.”
While in the camp, her mother fell ill and “one night she was gone.” However, Twayigira said that despite the tragic death of her mother, “life had to go move on,” so she and her grandparents continued to move forward.
But just two years later, in 1996, they had to leave because of war in the DRC, which is when “I began to experience a life that is unimaginable,” she said, recalling how she had her grandparents fled the camp with bullets flying over their heads, and took refuge in the forest.
“We only survived by begging for food,” she said. Her grandparents begged from locals in nearby villages, and at times were given moldy bread to eat. When begging wasn’t enough, “we even had to eat roots from the forest.”
“I remember sometimes we had to drink water from rivers with dead bodies floating in it,” she said, noting that their situation had become one of the “survival of the fittest.”
They had long distances to walk going from village to village and in search of another camp, many times walking on rough terrain. When the weather was too hot for their bare feet, they bunched up grass and tied it to their feet in order to be able to walk.
“We escaped death from so many things: from hunger, bullets, drowning, wild animals, you name it. No child should go through what I went through. In fact, nobody should go through what I went through,” she said.
Eventually the family made their way to another refugee camp, “but life would not be better there,” she said. While there were some soldiers protecting them, they would take young boys and train them to fight, and would take girls either as companions for the night or, at times, as wives.
Most of the boys leave refugee camps “with some sort of trauma,” she said, noting that when it came to the girls, some got pregnant, and others were made to be servants.
“The only reason I survived this is because I was very little,” Twayigira said. Due to the ongoing war, she and her grandparents traveled to nearby Angola before eventually ending up back in the DRC for a period of time.
However, with no improvement to the situation and no end to the war in sight, they again made their way to Angola for the second time. But when they arrived, “my grandma was very tired, and as for me, I was very malnourished.”
“You can imagine a big tummy and thin brown hair, and swollen cheeks and feet,” she said, describing herself as a young girl.
Twayigira recalled that her grandmother died shortly before they reached the refugee camp in Angola, and that had they not arrived when they did, “I was also almost gone.”
With just the two of them left, Twayigira explained that her grandfather eventually decided to travel to a different refugee camp in Zambia, because he heard they had a better school.
Despite such a long journey and so much loss, her grandfather moved again for no other reason “than to give his granddaughter a better education,” Twayigira said. She recalled that her grandfather “really believed in me so much. He never once said, ‘she’s just a girl, let me not waste my time on her.’”
After spending a few years in Zambia, the pair decided to make yet one more move, this time heading to a camp in Malawi that had better living conditions and even better schools. They arrived in September 2000.
Twayigira immediately enrolled in school once she arrived, making several new friends and, for the first time since they had left, was happy to have adequate food and shelter.
Being able to do well in her classes “would give me joy. Because at least I got to make some people proud, and I was very happy,” she said. Twayigira was eventually selected to join a Jesuit-run school, with all fees paid for by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
When she finished school in 2007, Twayigira’s grandfather fell ill, passing away just a few days after.
“I cried uncontrollably, badly, but life had to go on, and although I was in so much pain with the loss of my loved ones, it did not stop me from working hard,” she said, “because I knew that my future, it was not certain, I did not know what my future had, but I knew that my hard work would pay off.”
In 2009 she studied for the national final exam in Malawi, and finished among the top 6 students in the country. At the awards ceremony, the Chinese embassy offered a number of full-ride scholarships to study in China for the top students.
Twayigira was one of the students selected and, despite being a refugee with no citizenship status or passport, was able to get her paperwork in order with the help of the Jesuits at her school, a Catholic radio station and even the Malawian parliament.
She then moved to China and studied the language for a year before officially beginning classes in Chinese. She has since graduated and is currently working as a medical intern in Malawi.
While there were many times she wanted to give up along the way, Twayigira said she persisted, because at a certain point she realized that “God spared my life” not to keep it for herself, but because “there are people that I was meant to serve.”
“Before I went to China, I used to think I was just this girl with a tragic past…but when I got to China I realized that I’ve got a story to tell; a story of God and his love, a story that can change somebody’s life.”
As a doctor, Twayigira said she feels she can give even more. But in addition to her medical duties, she also looks for opportunities to speak in schools to try and “raise hope among the youth, especially refugee youth.”
She said that in the future, she hopes to work more directly with refugees, “because I believe I have a lot to share, having gone through what they’ve gone through.”
“Now this is my story…but unfortunately for many, theirs is just in the tragedy part,” she said, explaining that many refugee children don’t even have access to adequate housing let alone higher education.
Even those who do get a good education don’t necessarily have the same opportunities, Twayigira said, so “their hopes are just crushed.”
In order to change the situation, she said war itself has to end: “why not end all this violence, and I’m not talking about people from other countries coming in to invade our own countries, I mean why wait for an outsider to come to stop hurting, and killing?”
“Is the money or power at the expense of their blood really worth it? I don’t think so,” she said, adding that the only way to really resolve conflict is with “forgiveness, mercy and love.”
“Is there such humanity in us, or have we become robots?” she asked. “What is happening to innocent kids is completely unfair, and it needs to stop and I believe it starts from within us: from love, forgiveness and mercy.”
People in situations similar to hers need to know “that they are loved by God and people around them. They need to know that they matter, that there is hope for them, that they have a purpose in life,” she said, noting that this stems not only from having the basic needs met, but above all from education.
In an interview with CNA after her talk, Twayigira stressed the importance of education, saying it’s “really the key to everything, because if not educated, many girls don’t even know their value.”
However, with a good education women learn that “okay, I’m not worthless and someone can’t just come and step on my foot. I am somebody,” she said, adding that a proper education helps women to step into decision making positions where they can change things.
“I believe that once a girl is educated, that means you’re actually educating the whole family. Because a woman, you raise your children, they’re with you all the time, you know that whatever they get is what you teach them,” she said.
“So if a woman is educated that means the whole family will get quality advice from their mothers. So educating a girl is actually educating the whole country.”
Twayigira said she was happy to be able to speak at the Vatican, since the event was streamed live. She voiced her hope that people can hear her story “and not just feel sorry for me, but also see ways they can help other people like me to get a better education or a safe place, or open their homes to refugees like me.”
She said she also hopes other young women and girls from around the world will be able to see and hear her story, and to know that “it’s all possible…I believe that I’m a pillar of hope for them.”
She said one of her hopes coming out of the conference is not only to encourage young women in her situation to have hope, but also that the people who have the power and resources to change things will see that they “can actually do something under-privileged people like I was.”
“Their actions can change somebody’s life for the better, never to be the same,” she said.
[…]
How much longer, Lord?
“ But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?”
Whether or not Christ finds Faith on Earth is up to us, not God . We must be Faithful and call out the counterfeit church with it’s counterfeit pope and it’s counterfeit magisterium that is attempting to subsist within The One Body Of Christ because they desire to lead others astray from The Deposit Of Faith, and create a god in their own image.
How can we “make disciples of all Nations”, while allowing certain disciples to deny Jesus The Christ?
Those whose”competence it is”, know what needs to be done to save The Papacy from the usurpers.
Pray they have the courage to call out the apostates!
Rather than be accused of gossip this comment will unmistakably be a constructive analysis. Rumor has it that Cdl McElroy is a Pope Francis favoriti. “He’s the cardinal who is most aligned with Pope Francis” (this proves the rumor is more fact than fictitious gossip).
Why should this matter? Doesn’t everyone have their favorites and their deplorables? I’d like for a minute to talk about the deplorables. Deplorables [made famous by Hillary] are a large group, moreso that favoriti. Take the US as a starter, we have Archbishops of much larger Dioceses than San Diego [where favoriti McElroy became cardinal], Denver, San Francisco. Archbishops Aquila and Cordileone must be deplorables. We also have deplorable Cardinals Raymond Burke, Gerhard Muller [Burke evicted from his Vatican apartment by Francis, Muller stripped of his staff when CDF prefect, immediately dismissed at 75, lately a thorn].
Getting back to favoriti McElroy Wash DC is likely the most prestigious US diocese, once the see of the unfortunate Theodore McCarrick. Without envisioning too far afield like the papacy that position is a type of chiefdom within American hierarchy. Since his appointment to San Diego he convened three Synods [of the Synodality kind] in that diocese, and Nov 12, 2024 Cardinal Robert McElroy has proposed that the US bishops set up a task force to implement the agenda of Synod on Synodality (CatholicVote org). Apparently McElroy will be Pope Francis’ Synodality point man and enforcer in the US.
This makes a lot of sense, that Cardinal McElroy is the point man for the pope. It’s also BAD news for American Catholics.
Thanks!! for the heads up.
Let’s pray for faithful priests to overcome the evil that is being done.
A shrewd political operator for the most political of U.S. cities. Even if this appointment seemed inevitable, I am sorry for faithful traditional Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington who have already lost so much under Traditionis Custodes. I think of someone like Msgr. Charles Pope and pray that he, and they, do not lose more.
Although Cardinal McElroy is known for being outspoken on political and social issues, I believe the Archbishop of Washington, DC, has no jurisdiction over the House, Senate or White House. So his direct influence there is limited. As I understand, Catholic Senators and Representatives “belong” to their home diocese and relatively few elected officials claim residence in the District of Columbia or the Maryland counties included in tbe diocese. The White House operates largely by its own rules. That doesn’t mean that the Archbishop of Washington can’t have indirect influence over national political leaders, as was witnessed in the years when Cardinal McCarrick was in charge. But McElroy enters the DC scene at a major transitional point, and he won’t find the same degree of welcome that he would have found under a Biden administration.
The Washington Post will prop up his insipid pseudo-Christian neo-DEI bromides while even secular liberals tire of it.
True that.
Cardinal McElroy will get more media attention than he did in San Diego, that’s for sure. He will provide the sound bites that the DC based media establishment craves. He’ll also fit in well with the very liberal DC government.
Whether he will actually have more widespread influence to the point of swaying more people, includng Catholics, to his point of view .. well, that remains to be seen. Is the Archbishop of Washington actually looked at as a de facto national leader because of his location in the nation’s capitol? Doesn’t seem like it.
This appointment ain’t gonna play in Peoria.
The Faithful must not continue to ignore the fact that “ it is a sin to accommodate an occasion of sin”, and thus cooperate with those who profess to be Catholic, while they deny The Deposit Of Faith, which is evil.
We have Catholic politicians that constantly violate the laws of our faith and the pope tells them go ahead with receive communion. We need a new pope.
“This appointment ain’t gonna play in Peoria.”
Oh, I don’t know. Have you been in Peoria, IL lately? Really sad, IMO.
Some have claimed that many of Francis’ numerous appointments to the College of Cardinals are far more conservative than one would suspect given the inclinations of the pope who named them. We’ll see if that turns out to be true. A lot of them are so obscure that I don’t think anyone can confidently predict where they’ll come down one way or another.
There is no doubt about any of his American picks, however. They are absolutely the worst selections imaginable, save, perhaps certain famous certain celebrity Jesuits who otherwise seem very much favored by Francis. Francis has a special animus toward American conservative Catholics. This outrageous appointment is just the latest middle finger to a group of people he genuinely detests.
I think Pope Francis thinks all Americans are really rich. Of course, compared to many countries, we do have a lot of people who are earning a decent living and of course, many who are very wealthy. But we still have a lot of poor, disenfranchised, homeless, under-educated, addicted people, and we still have plenty of racism victims in the U.S.
We are not the “Beverly Hills” that I think some people think we are; e.g., “There are no cats in American and the street are made of cheese! (from the movie, An American Tail). Those immigrant mice found out that there are plenty of cats in America, and the streets are definitely NOT made of cheese!
But the opportunity to make a good life in the U.S. still exists, and we still retain many of our freedoms.
We need a new pope
Noting the trifecta election results centered in DC, McElroy’s role in the wake of woke is somehow to put his thumb in the dike, or wherever.
Normal Appointment – coming from where it does…
https://www.fromrome.info/2020/02/05/vatican-intelligence-officer-i-am-a-freemason-and-so-is-bergoglio/
“His Eminence” McElroy = McCarrick, an apostate hierarch of “the-science-of-sanctifying-sodomy-now.”
He, like his promoter-of-pederasty the Pontiff Francis, are witch doctors of “the-cult-to-decapitate-the-Body-of-Christ.”
“His Eminence” McElroy, along with all of his fellow hierarchs of the McCarrick cult, are of the death cult of the dry wood, fit for the prophecy Jesus spoke to the women of Jerusalem, when he was being marched to his crucifixion.
Every church he enters will empty out of Christian faithful.
Mark my word, no faithful Catholic will listen to a word that comes from the mouth of Herr McElroy.
Pope Francis had declared he would make a special exception for the Africans’ “cultural” attitude to homosexualism. Ambongo seems to be able to work along with consequential discrepancies but Tawadros withdrew from the theological dialogue.
So if Pope Francis has homosexualism as “not a sin” also as “cultural phenomenon”, going on in his brain, then it would make sense to appoint McElroy to administer over the towers of confusion among different localities and gravitational points?
A Polyhedron with angles and vectors like Beauty = Truth and Unity = Goodness?
You know, I can understand our Lord saying let the wheat and cockle grow together until the appropriate time -as pastoral. But the Holy Father makes no sense a lot of the time; eg., things were going well with Tawadros only then to turn for the worst.
I concede that some of the exhortations don’t clarify areas that have no apparent reason to them.
Also it seems to me that none of those called in the Nativity epiphanies right up to the time of Joseph’s departure, was told he was sad, or flat, or apathetic, or resigned or trapped.
‘ Even in the darkest nights, a star shines. It is the star of Jesus, who comes to care for our fragile humanity. Let us set out towards Him. Let us not give apathy and resignation the power to trap us in the sadness of a flat life. ‘
https://x.com/Pontifex/status/1876607215177748711
Elias. As a measure for assessment, how would Saint Francis Xavier have responded if Pope Paul III had a worship ceremony for Aztec god Nahuatl [God of the sun and sacrifice] in the Vatican gardens to be followed by an enshrinement of the sun god by a group of singing dancing cardinals in the sanctuary of St Peter’s Basilica? Why was the overall reaction by the Church to the Pachamama idolatry so mild, compared to what we can safely presume would have occurred during Francis Xavier’s day?
Satan had already gained a grip on the Church with the replacement of Aztec human sacrifice with the much greater, worldwide sacrifice of prenatal infants. Homosexuality has a strange, perhaps not so strange diabolic nexus with the murder of infants, now including the sexual exploitation of children. Find an active homosexual who is against abortion. Find one who actively opposes the sexual exploitation of minors. A rarity.
What has occurred with the placement by Francis of McElroy, one, if not the most well educated, intellectual spokesman for abortion and homosexuality, is the solidification of a strategy to totally corrupt the remaining significant Roman Catholic body [putatively the rationale for Francis’ disdain], the American Catholic Church.
The McElroy appointment is about the Mercy Alone heresy flowing from Amoralist Laetitia.
The main reason for McElroy to DC is about the need to hide the sordid history of McCarrick. Watch out Wuerl! Gregory is going to want some of the millions. 💰 🤐
Where do we go from here, Lord, where do we go from here? Only to you, Lord, ONLY to you. Having defeated evil on the cross we pray and work, work and pray aspiring to be counted with your Faithful Remnant in eager anticipation of your 2nd Coming when evil is abolished, your Good Creation restored to the beautiful you intended your good creation to be.
I am a life-long Catholic, 78 years old, who was taught that this is Christ’s church.
I find myself wondering if the Pope and his favorites really believe his. Do they ask
“What does Christ want for His Church?” or Do they have their own personal idea of what
they want the Church to be, with of course an important place for them?
As I recall, Christ rebuked Apostles who were maneuvering to sit at His right hand.
He made it clear that that was not what He was about. Have our higher clergy ever read this passage?
My take is that Cardinal McElroy’s placement in the nation’s capital is a timely reminder from Pope Francis to Catholics in the U.S.. Given the second Trump administration, the rising tide of White Christian (and Catholic!) Nationalism, and the mainly anti-abortion only stand of most of pro-life activists, McElroy’s pulpit will blast the full and complete scope of what pro-life advocacy is. Cardinal McElroy has consistently preached that a consistent pro-life ethic must support not only the protection of life in the womb but also the protection of life outside the womb. Expounding Catholic Social Teachings on the sanctity of life, McElroy asserts, that Catholics are to live out their pro-life commitments in ways that reflect compassion, justice, and solidarity. This vision goes beyond merely opposing abortion or euthanasia; it encompasses a comprehensive approach that sees the life and dignity of each person as sacred, from conception to natural death, and it calls Catholics to act on behalf of those who are often disregarded by society. This means standing up for policies that defend the lost, the least, and the last, such as advocating for humane immigration policies, racial justice, and ensuring that LGBTQIA+ individuals have the same rights and dignity as others in society. Being the U.S. bishop most aligned with Pope Francis in environmental justice advocacy, Cardinal McElroy has also shown that ecological work is deeply intertwined with the pro-life movement, as the health of our environment directly impacts the dignity and survival of all life on Earth. Filling in what is often lacking in most pro-life advocacy initiatives and echoing Pope Francis, Cardinal McElroy proclaims the Catholic Social Teaching that the pro-life stance is not confined to opposing abortion or protecting the unborn; it extends to defending life in all its forms, and that includes caring for the planet that sustains all life.
Catholics in the Archdiocese of Washington will pay attention to Cardinal McElroy’s appointment but “Catholics in the US” probably.won’t. Because he has no jurisdiction over them. The head of the Washington Archdiocese not acquire any national standing simply because he is seated in the national’s capitol. This limits his ability to be the kind of transformative figure you are imagining.
Given that Cardinal Gregory also supports most of the positions cited above, there may not be many dramatic changes. McElroy may be more outspoken and may grab more media attention; whether he will be more assertive in making changes to the archdiocese remains to be seen, but his changes will be to the Archdiocese of Washington, and will not apply to the country as a whole.
And there are a lot of liberals and progressives in the DC area saying saying more or less the same things that Cardinal McElroy is saying, so he is not going to stand out as much as you may imagine.
This extended screed of sycophancy sounds as if McElroy wrote it himself.
I don’t think people should be segregated or categorized by alphabet letters or by other inventions like “race” Deacon Dom. We’re just human beings and from a biblical perspective, we are all instructed to obey the same Commandments. We can each struggle dufferently to keep the Commandments and Christ’s teachings. Some teachings are going to be harder for us than others but that doesn’t create special exemptions based upon our attractions or temptations.
More nonsense from the “Deacon” named Dom.
Cardinal McElroy is a leftist social justice warrior, Deacon. He does have that it in common with Pope Francis. I’m surprised (not really) that you didn’t mention that, like Francis, the good Cardinal has covered for molestors and had, and maybe still has, a great relationship with Ted McCarrick.
Deacon, would being pro-life include not repeating the childishly silly lies pro-aborts and the morally indifferent have been saying about pro-lifers?
Exactly what line of reasoning goes into creating the belief that being a parent or doctor or nurse or teacher or legislator or administrator or homemaker or cook or waiter or builder or truck driver or construction worker or anyone from any other background within the pro-life movement, would preclude having the human compassion you infer that pro-lifers do not have for anyone after they are born? Incidentally, pro-lifers are not only racially white as you also infer. And we also care about thousands of things.
What exactly have you done? Do you provide material aid for abortion turnarounds like we do, or do you just prefer to stereotype us and denigrate us while simultaneously lecturing us about learning “compassion.”
Deacon: Does caring for life also include caring for the victim of a depraved priest raping his victim in satanic rituals or brushing her aside as McElroy has done? Or does “mercy” include caring for and having mercy for the victims of a depraved serial rapist of nuns or protecting the rapist as Francis has done?
Is Jesus God incarnate? Is the Son of God the head of the Church? Although there are disconcerting events and actions in the physical Church, we cannot always discern the workings of the Trinity in this life or in the Church. Trust in God, trust in Christ, trust in the Holy Spirit. Let your faith be authenticate, your life holy from grace, your conscience clear, and serve and love others. May what is True and Good prevail in church life.
McElroy, Cupich, and Tobin have to be “elevated” by Francis if they are going to have any influence. Their brother bishops sure don’t seem inclined to give them any influential roles in the USCCB. They are like the teacher’s pet despised by the rest of the class.
The “elevation” of McElroy to the DC archdiocese will not elevate him; it will only degrade DC.
Trump will get the better of any match with McElroy.
After reading the article I thought, “What a whitewashed piece of journalism this is.” Then when I saw it was written by Hannah Brockhaus of CNA, I understood. CNA does not want Catholics to know how people like McElroy, Francis, and others cover up abuse. CNA never reports on seminarians who are drugged and sodomized like Mark Brooks was in San Diego, or Rachel Mastrogiacom whose ritual satanic abuse McElroy attempted to cover up.
Msgr., I’ve been saying for awhile now that what comes to us from CNA is utter trash. It’s a propaganda agent for Bergolioistas.
Have you been granted a declaration of nullity by a Diocesan Tribunal for your “marriage” to Leila, Gene and have you resumed presenting yourself as a Catholic Priest or do you prefer the title “Dad”?
Woke Doctorates be dammed!
At a web site where a fawning interview of the Cardinal occurred, where he went on and on preaching his pseudo-gospel of “inclusiveness,” I posed these comments.
It seems an incapacity to make rational distinctions is now the necessary criteria for becoming a cardinal in this pontificate. Oh, I forgot. The ability to not be inclusive towards the damaged victims of the savage sinful sexual crimes, ritual satanic abuse in one case, by priests that you, Cardinal covered up, that’s right, what you have systematically ignored. Why doesn’t “inclusiveness” seem to “include” the victims of grave sins??