Pope Francis asked for forgiveness on Monday for the "sins and failings of the Church" during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, saying he hoped his apology would help heal the African state's wounds.
But Rwanda's government indicated it felt the apology did not go far enough, saying the local Church was still complicit in protecting the perpetrators of the genocide.
At a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Pope Francis said that priests and Roman Catholic faithful had taken part in the slaughter of some 800,000 people from the ethnic Tutsi minority as well as moderates from the Hutu majority.
"(The pope) implored anew God’s forgiveness for the sins and failings of the Church and its members, among whom priests, and religious men and women who succumbed to hatred and violence," the Vatican said in a statement.
An official Rwandan statement repeated the government's long-standing accusation of Catholic complicity in the massacres.
The Catholic Church in Rwanda last year offered an apology, saying some of its members had fanned the ethnic hatred that led to the killings, but Kagame said at the time that he wanted the pope himself to say sorry.
"Why doesn't he apologise like he does with other cases where more minor crimes were committed by comparison with here?," he said, referring to sexual abuse cases where the pope has regularly apologised to victims and their families.
Francis said on Monday he hoped his "humble recognition of the failings of that period, which, unfortunately, disfigured the face of the Church, may contribute to a 'purification of memory' and may promote, in hope and renewed trust, a future of peace".
For two decades following the genocide, the Vatican maintained that although individual clergy had committed terrible crimes, the church bore no institutional responsibility.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pope-rwanda-idUSKBN16R1DJhttps://vk.com/wall-50177168_564896