Pope Francis issued an apology on behalf of the Catholic Church for its role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide after meeting with Rwanda President Paul Kagame on Mar. 20.

The pontiff expressed his sadness for the Tutsi ethnic group massacre, conveying his "solidarity with the victims and those who continue to suffer the consequences of those tragic events."

He asked for forgiveness for the Church's involvement in the massacre, which claimed the lives of over 800,000 members of the ethnic groups Tutsi and Hutus, and for the failings of the members of the Church who "succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying their own evangelical mission."

The pontiff also addressed the dialogue between the government of Rwanda and the Catholic Bishops in Rwanda in November 2016. The Rwandan Catholic clergy issued a statement on Nov. 20, 2016, in which they apologized for the Church's complicity in the 1994 genocide.

"We apologize for all the wrongs the Church committed. We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that church members violated (their) oath of allegiance to God's commandments," Rwanda's Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in their statement.

According to the spokesperson for the Catholic Clergy, the statement's publication was aligned with the closure of the Catholic Church's Year of Mercy.

While the statement was appreciated by the government of Rwanda, they were quick to issue a harsh rebuke which they released on Nov. 23, 2016. They cited the statement's "profound inadequacy" and how it emphasizes the Church's avoidance of "full and honest reckoning with its moral and legal responsibilities."

The Rwandan government criticized the bishops' act to vindicate the whole Catholic Church of their accountability in the 1994 genocide by simply expressing remorse "on behalf of a few unnamed individuals."

"Given the scale of the crimes, there is ample justification for an apology from the Vatican, as has occurred repeatedly with other cases of lesser magnitude," their reply statement stressed.