Later on Saturday, Francis will join a rally with young people, visit a charity and meet with local priests, seminarians and nuns.
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Willis Olwora, a civil servant, who was among those hoping to see Francis at the Anglican shrine, said that the pope’s message on loving and respecting one another “touched the hearts of so many here, including mine”.
Sunday’s visit was a rare moment of jubilation in Central African Republic, where Muslim rebels overthrew the Christian president in early 2013, ushering in a brutal reign that led to a swift and horrific backlash against Muslim civilians when the rebel leader left power the following year.
Thousands of pilgrims braved rain to spend the night holding a vigil near the martyrs’ shrines and there were long lines of pilgrims still trying to access the shrine as Pope Francis began to address the crowds on Saturday morning. Homosexuality remains illegal in many countries in Africa, including Kenya and Uganda, where tough anti-gay legislation has drawn global criticism.
Pope Francis is the third Pope to visit Uganda, and he is likely to continue to preach his message of mercy and care for the poor, and to speak out against corruption, says the BBC’s religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt – a message that was welcomed by people in Kenya.
“Remember, you are a people of martyrs”, he said.
Francis is due to fly out of Uganda around 0600 GMT for Bangui.
Francis’ Alitalia charter landed just beyond the settlement for displaced residents that has cropped up on the airport’s edge, housing some of the people who have been uprooted during two years of sectarian violence in the country.
Security, however, was understandably tight. The airport road has been the scene of frequent carnage during the conflict, most recently in late October when two Muslims were abducted and killed after Christian militia fighters stopped their taxi before it reached the airport.
Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the head of the United Nations operation, told Vatican Radio that United Nations peacekeepers and French troops were confident that they could keep the Pope and his entourage safe.
A UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) sol … Today, the capital that once had 122,000 Muslims has only around 15,000, according to Human Rights Watch. Within hours, the Muslim fighters, called the Seleka, retaliated in attacks on Christians in the neighbourhoods surrounding PK5.
The pope plans to visit a displacement camp later Sunday in Bangui where Christians have sought protection amid the ongoing violence.
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The Muslim community in PK5 is eager to welcome Pope Francis, Onanga-Anyanga said.
