The Contribution of Roman Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission in Peace Building in Nyundo Diocese, Rwanda

ABSTRACT The study was conducted in Diocese of Nyundo of Roman Catholic Church with the aim of illustrating the CDJP’s activities in the field of peace building. The study entitled “The contribution of Roman Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission in Peace Building in Diocese of Nyundo, in Rwanda” was carried out basing on four specific objectives: i) To establish the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, (ii) To identify different Social conflicts and define their causes in Nyundo Diocese, (iv) To establish the relationship between CDJP/Nyundo and peace building and to determine the level of its participation in peace building in Nyundo Diocese, (vi) To assess the factors that, negatively, affect CDJP/ Nyundo and to suggest possible ideas. The descriptive research design method was used in this study; which helped in testing whether the CDJP/Nyundo has contributed in peace building or not. It involves using questionnaire and interview in collecting data from the respondents and both quantitative and qualitative research designs were used for data analysis. The SPSS was used to analyze all data. The study population comprised 374 people involved in peace building from which sample size of 259 respondents was chosen, using systematic random sampling method. The data were expressed into tables and were processed using frequency distribution, and percentages distributions. It discovered that CDJP/Nyundo has improved in conflict resolution within Christians and it also contributed fighting against injustice. The study concluded that CDJP/Nyundo has a positive impact on peace building in Rubavu District and have a profound influence on the socio economic strategy of well being of population. Therefore, it is recommended that Government should increase human dignity and reconciliation policies in Rwanda, to local community as the corps which work hands in hands with CDJP/Nyundo every day, it should increase collaboration, to Roman Catholic Church in general that it should establish ways of visiting CDJP in order to reinforce its services and advocate to the government, and to the CDJP/Nyundo that it should go beyond Catholic Church to provide various training to others from different Churches.