VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II has issued an appeal to authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, asking that Bishop Emmanuel Kataliko of Bukavu be allowed to return to his diocese.

    Bishop Kataliko is now staying in his native town of Butembo, having been barred by local authorities from returning to his diocese. The Pope said the incident was "a grave violation that inflicts a painful wound on all Catholics." Asking for "the immediate application of the Lusaka peace accord," the Pope invoked God's help for the cause of "unity and reconciliation in that beloved country."

    Bishop Kataliko earned the enmity of the military leaders who control the Bukavu area when he denounced the human-rights violations committed by the anti-Kabila rebel forces there.

    Those abuses are apparently continuing. The Fides news agency has reported that a Catholic priest and two laymen were killed near Bukavu on February 15, when rebel forces set fire to a parish building in the village of Kiliba.