The crowds swelled again at a displacement camp, where children sang him songs of welcome and held up hand-made signs saying “Peace”, “Love” and “Unity”.
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“Central Africans have inflicted unspeakable suffering on other Central Africans”.
“And because we’re brothers, we want peace”, he said.
He is now embarking on the most challenging part of the trip – Central African Republic is a country where violence between Christian and Muslim militants has forced almost 1 million from their homes over the last two years and created a divided capital. Tens of thousands of Muslim civilians fled for their lives to neighboring Chad and Cameroon. Human Rights Watch said there are only 15,000 Muslims remaining in Bangui, down from around 122,000.
From the Anglican shrine, Francis travelled by popemobile to the Catholic shrine to celebrate Mass for some three hundred thousand faithful gathered there at a specially constructed altar, overlooking an artificial lake in a large park not far from the actual shrine. “But remember, peace without love, friendship and tolerance is nothing”.
When Alitalia flight AZ A330 landed at the M’Poko Airport in Bangui, the national capital, Francis became the first pope in history to visit an active war zone.
Pope Francis prayed for peace in the troubled central African nation of Burundi on Saturday and an end to months of strife that has sparked fears of renewed civil war.
In a nod to Francis’ appeal for personal soul-searching, she offered a public confession.
Greeting the pontiff, she asked for forgiveness, saying that “hearts had been hardened by the forces of evil”. The city of Bangui has always been under a nightly curfew of 8 p.m.as gun battles have rung out after dark in the flashpoint neighborhoods.
Francis was greeted upon his arrival Sunday with an incredibly heavy security presence – with United Nations soldiers in the traditional blue helmets carrying rifles alongside plainclothes officers, and what appeared to be members of the Vatican detail wearing heavy protective vests. More than 3,000 peacekeepers from the MINUSCA UN mission will also be deployed and French troops will be on alert as well.
The Vatican’s spokesman said Saturday Francis” itinerary had been confirmed and all is expected to go ahead as planned, “if there are no particular surprises’.
Some of the pilgrims attending the Mass had been here all night to honor the martyrs and see the pope, braving rains and sleeping on mats to guard against the mud that turned the grounds into chocolate-colored muck. “He can do the same in us in every single thing that we experience”.
Francis, who has said global warming is “mainly” man-made, said the world was faced with a stark choice in Paris: either improve or destroy the environment.
The pope is to visit a refugee camp in Bangui later on Sunday before having separate meetings with the country’s bishops and an evangelical community. With the help of the Community of Sant’Egidio, a new movement in the Catholic Church specialized in conflict resolution, all the presidential candidates in the Central African Republic came together for the first time since the conflict began. He was stabbed and killed by Muslim combatants and cut up into pieces, she said. “I am taking advantage of all the security here to come”.
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In light of their deaths, the Pope said all Christians should be missionaries “to our families and friends certainly, but also to those whom we do not know, especially those who might be unfriendly, even hostile, to us”.
