Following years of tension, a series of mass killings violently broke out in the central African nation in April 1994.
In a 100 days twenty per cent of the population were tortured and killed in one of the worst genocides the world has ever seen.
Fr Antony Chantery, National Director of Missio, told Premier the world needs to learn from this destruction.
He said: "There are many lessons to be learnt from the horrible events from the genocide which took place 22 years ago.
"It's pause for thought about what could cause such wonderful people who've been neighbours forever, suddenly to turn on each other like that."
Fr Emmanuel Nsengiyumva was 18-years-old when the systematic slaughter began.
He lost two of his brothers and knows well the deep emotional wounds of his people: "Your relatives, your mother, your father, your brothers, is not only killed but they torture him in front of you.
"Some of them would die in two days... two days of agony."
Fr Antony Chantery went on: "I think the lessons we can learn from all of this is - as soon as you begin to divide people, as soon as you build walls, as soon as you start to distinguish people from one another, then you're sowing the seeds for conflict.
"Sometimes that conflict can be overtaken by evil."
Fr Emmanuel works with Rwandans as parish priest in Nyamata.
He told Premier the Church has a responsibility to help stop evil, and it does do that: "The Church will always do its best to try to diffuse these situations that can escalate out of control.
"The Church is made up of human beings and I suppose with all the weakness and vulnerability of humanity, bad things are done within the Church."
World Mission Sunday is celebrated by Catholics in every country where the Church is present.
On Sunday parishes all over the world are being encouraged to pray for the missionary work of the Church and share what they can to support faith communities overseas which are in urgent need.
Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speak to Fr Antony Chantery here:
