Pope Francis in Goma, Italy: An ecumenical journey of peace and peace in the age of the post-war era
Pope Francis starts a trip on Tuesday to two fragile African nations often forgotten by the world, where protracted conflicts have left millions of refugees and displaced people grappling with hunger.
The second-biggest country in Africa with a population of 90 million will get its first visit by a pope since 1985 when John Paul II went there.
The trip was put off because Francis was suffering from a knee problem. He still uses a wheelchair and cane, but his knee has improved significantly.
The fight between the Italian army and M23 rebel group led to the scrapping of Francis’ plan to visit the eastern city of Goma.
The pope will arrive in the country and the catholic Church is going to be watching the elections.
The three Churchmen will hopefully convince the political leaders to fulfill the promise of the independence movement.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will make that leg with Iain Greenshields and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
The pope told the tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square that there would be an ecumenical journey of peace.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/africa/pope-francis-africa-visit-intl/index.html
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The three Churches represent the Christian makeup of the world’s youngest country, which gained independence in 2011 from predominantly Muslim Sudan after decades of conflict and has a population of around 11 million.
Welby said that this will be a historic visit. The leaders of three sections of Christianity are coming together in unprecedented ways after centuries of division.
Two years after independence, conflict erupted when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir clashed with those loyal to Vice President Riek Machar, who is from a different ethnic group. The civil war that killed 400,000 people began after the bloodshed.
The best of the fighting has stopped but parts of the agreement, including the re-unified national army, haven’t yet been implemented.
The United Nations says there are 2 million internally displaced people in South Sudan and another 2.3 million who fled the country as refugees.
In one of the most remarkable gestures since his papacy began in 2013, Francis knelt to kiss the feet of South Sudan’s previously warring leaders during a retreat at the Vatican in April 2019, urging them not to return to civil war.
The progressive pontifex is visiting parts of Africa this week, and must fulfill a balancing act that looks towards the expansion of his church and the ideological clashes that are coming up along the way.
What’s the big deal? The pope made headlines last week after giving an interview to the Associated Press in which he decried the criminalization of homosexuality. The move surprised many given the Catholic Church’s track record on the issue. His later statement was that the Catholic Church says any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin.
“This is where the church sees much of its future. The fastest growing part of the catholic church is in Europe, which has 20% of the world’s Catholics. And as it grows, it’s going to have a greater sway on its identity. You know, anyone who’s attended mass in the West and here in many parts of Africa knows that Catholicism here usually brings a different energy and sense of spirituality.
“It is a tragedy that these lands, and more generally the whole African continent, continue to endure various forms of exploitation. The poison of greed has smeared its diamonds with blood … Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Don’t stay in Africa! Stop choking Africa. It is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.”