BANGUI (AFP) – The president of the Central African Republic (CAR), Francois Bozize, was elevated to the status of religious leader Monday, state radio said Monday.
(http://vml1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Francois-Bozize.jpg?9d7bd4) (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/05/car-president-becomes-celestial-church-leader/francois-bozize/)Francois Bozize "Whit Monday was an opportunity for the Celestial Church of Christ New Jerusalem to inaugurate a temple in Bambari and canonise the president of the republic as 'senior evangelist'," the radio said.
Bozize becomes the top leader of the Benin-born and Nigeria-based evangelical church in his country.
The 65-year-old president, who took power in a 2003 coup, is the church's main financier in CAR. He converted during a period of exile in Benin that followed a failed 1982 coup.
In 2001, his predecessor Ange-Felix Patasse's regime had accused him of using his church as the recruitment arm of his rebellion.
Vanguard Nigeria