He loves us Muslims too. I remember many moments, but above all, I remember the crowds.
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Pope Francis said his visit to vehicle “would not be complete if it did not include this encounter with the Muslim community”. Africa is recognised as being crucial to the future of the Catholic Church with the continent’s Catholic numbers growing faster than anywhere else in the world. It is ground central of a vicious civil war between Muslims and Christians.
He dismissed this however as “not the problem” and said it reminded him of the question asked Jesus, “Tell me, teacher, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Pope Paul VI, in his first visit to Africa in 1969, extolled the spirituality and closeness of Africans to God and also their sense of community.
The freewheeling conversations have become a trademark of his papacy and the few times he takes direct questions from journalists.
One enormous question looms: Will the anti-Balaka fighters who identify as Christian heed the call of Pope Francis?
But it was in Central African Republic, torn apart by brutal violence between mostly Muslim rebels and Christian militias for more than two years, that his visit appeared to have made the most powerful impression.
As well as bringing in the special unit, which will remain for another eight weeks, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR (INUSCA) also helped build the pope-mobile that Francis used during his visit, which ended today.
He traveled to the continent for a November 25-30 visit that took him to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic.
According to a statement put out by the Vatican after Francis went to the mosque, he called for peace between the contending faiths in C.A.R. “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters”.
“This trip, in many ways, has captured all of the core themes of Francis’ papacy in miniature, from war and peace to interreligious dialogue to the environment to his passion for the poor”, said CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen. He rode in the popemobile with Imam Oumar Kobine Layama, president of the Islamic Council.
“All the hearts are not yet open to the path of reconciliation”.
Pope Francis met with the chief imam of the Koudoukou mosque after removing his shoes and bowing towards the holy Muslim city of Mecca. Pope Francis delivered medicines that were donated by a hospital in Rome.
He spoke about his experience in each country, calling Kenya a land “blessed with great human and natural resources”.
“Those who claim to believe in God must also be men and women of peace”, he said, noting that Christians, Muslims and followers of traditional religions had lived together in peace for many years.
Pope Francis left a simple black pair of Oxfords, while Moon provided two pairs of sneakers.
“The problem is bigger than that”, he added.
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An example of the fruits of such a witness was reflected in the history of Uganda, the second leg of his trip, where the memory of the 19th-century Catholic and Anglican martyrs is still strong. The pope warned that the situation is “borderline suicide”. When he arrived in the Central African Republic on Sunday, the pope said he was visiting as a “pilgrim of peace and an apostle of hope”.
