The Vatican has beatified Floribèrt Bwana Chui Bin Kositi, a 26-year-old Congolese customs worker who was murdered in 2007 for refusing to approve the transport of spoiled rice intended for consumption by the poor. 

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, head of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification Mass June 16 at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, AP News reported. The celebration drew a crowd of Congolese pilgrims and members of Rome’s Congolese Catholic community. 

Kositi served as a quality control officer at the Congolese customs office in Goma, a conflict-ridden city in eastern Congo. In June 2007, he blocked a shipment of rancid rice arriving from Rwanda and refused a series of bribes intended to push the spoiled goods through. His stand put him in danger, but he remained firm. 

“If I accept this money, am I living in Christ? Am I living for Christ?” he told a friend at the time, according to testimony cited in the cause for his beatification. “As a Christian, I cannot allow people’s lives to be sacrificed,” he said. “I would rather die than accept that money.”

Days later, he was kidnapped and killed; when his body was found, it showed signs of torture.

Kositi had earned a degree in law and joined the Community of Sant’Egidio during his studies. He chose to return to Goma after training in Kinshasa. Once there, he dedicated himself not only to his public duties but also to the city’s most vulnerable. He formed friendships with street children and personally funded their education. 

“Because in God’s eyes, we are all equal, we all have the same rights,” he told one boy when asked why he cared to help him.

Pope Francis officially recognized Kositi as a martyr in November 2023, affirming he had been killed in odium fidei — out of hatred for the faith. Speaking to young people in Kinshasa during his 2023 visit, Pope Francis described Kositi as a model of Christian courage. 

“He chose to be honest, saying no to the filth of corruption,” the late pope said. “That is what it means to keep your hands clean and your heart clean too.”

The declaration advanced his cause toward sainthood. He may become the first canonized saint from the Democratic Republic of Congo.