Pope Francis ended his visit to the violence-torn Central African Republic with cries for peace and pleas for a mercy that seeks and grants forgiveness.
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The pope’s visit immediately ushered in a greater sense of freedom to the beleaguered area.
On a rare trip into the volatile neighborhood known as PK5, the pope recalled how Christians and Muslims had long lived together peacefully in Bangui. Some followed the pope’s entourage all the way to the sports stadium where he said a final Mass before heading to the airport for his flight back to Italy. The imam, Tidiani Moussa Naibi, told the Pope that his visit was “a symbol that we all understand”.
“Fundamentalism is a disease that is found in all religions”, said Pope Francis. Before the civil war erupted in March 2013, the Muslim population of the capital was about 122 000 but most have fled.
United Nations sharpshooters looked out from the tops of the minarets crowning the freshly repainted green and white mosque, where hundreds of PK5’s Muslims listened as Francis made an impassioned appeal for an end to the violence.
“Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself”, Pope Francis insisted. “The pope is not only for the Christians, he is a servant of God for all Central Africans”, said Ibrahim Paulin, a spokesman for the displaced. All of the remaining Muslims that have sheltered from sectarian violence in the neighborhood of PK 12 in Bangui, over one thousand, have been evacuated towards the northern town of Kabo and Sido on the border with Chad.
Mobs attacked Muslims in the streets, even decapitating and dismembering them and setting their corpses ablaze.
Pope Francis made few references to AIDS during his time in Africa, although he did visit children with HIV in a hospital in Uganda, the U.K.’s Guardian reports.
PK5, home to the majority of Bangui’s Muslims who have not fled north, has become the epicentre of inter-religious violence in the city.
The landlocked nation descended into bloodshed more than two years ago after long-time Christian leader Francois Bozize was ousted by rebels from the mainly Muslim Seleka force, triggering the worst crisis since independence in 1960.
Pope Francis has slammed fundamentalism across religions, but warned that there are many Roman Catholics who believe they have “absolute truth” and are fundamentalists themselves.
They targeted churches and Christian communities, which triggered the creation of the anti-Balaka – meaning anti-violence – militias, and led to a downward spiral of tit-for-tat violence which continues. We must therefore consider ourselves and conduct ourselves as such.
“This morning there was a Muslim who wanted to head out of the enclave”. Stanislas Redepouzou, 28, said the December 2013 attack also killed his mother and father. Francis also spoke on the importance of upholding the dignity of each person, and referred to the Central African axiom “Zo kwe zo”, meaning that in the country “everybody is somebody”.
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“One of the most-rare values today is that of brotherhood”, a value essential for peace, he said. “They looted everything, they burnt my house and I have nothing, but I am ready to forget”.
