God’s forgiveness is sought for the sins and failings of the Church and its members, including priests and nuns who “succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying their own evangelical mission”.

A spokesperson for the Pope said the Armenian phrase Medz Yeghern, which translates as the “great evil” or the “great catastrophe”, was preferred to genocide.

Fr Vincent Machozi died shortly after he posted an online article denouncing the involvement of the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in massacres of civilians.

"We must go on living by building peace and mutual trust," Vatican spokesman Fr Frederico Lombardi appeals.