VATICAN CITY (RNS) A Rwandan Catholic bishop known for his efforts to reconcile victims and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide has resigned, apparently for mismanaging the finances of his diocese.

The Vatican announced on Friday (Jan. 29) that Kizito Bahujimihigo, 55, had stepped down as bishop of Kibungo, in accordance with a church law that calls for the resignation of a “bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause.”

The normal retirement age for Catholic bishops is 75.

The chairman of the Rwandan Bishops’ conference, Bishop Smaragde Mbonyintege, told the Rwandan newspaper New Times that Bahujimihigo had resigned because he had been unable to account for large amounts of church funds.

According to an anonymous source cited by the newspaper, the missing funds totaled $70 million. Other sources said the diocese is more than $175 million in debt.

The bishop told the newspaper that he would explain his resignation “in two or three weeks.”

Bahujimihigo has been a vocal proponent of efforts to reconcile victims and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, in which members of the majority Hutu tribe killed as many as 1 million minority Tutsis.

As bishop of Kibungo, and in his previous role as bishop of Ruhengeri, Bahujimihigo has more than once come into conflict with the Rwandan government.

According to Andrew Wallis, a Rwanda expert at the University of Cambridge, the bishop has antagonized political leaders by opposing their plans for condom distribution and birth control, and by defending the work of white missionary priests accused of having supported Hutu extremists during the genocide.