“Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters”, the pope said during a visit to a mosque in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, where inter-religious violence has killed thousands of people since 2013.
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Pope Francis admitted Monday the question as to whether the Church should allow the use of condoms in the fight against AIDS was a “complicated” one, but he said the world had bigger problems.
Most Muslims have left the capital but 15,000 are left in an area called PK5 surrounded by armed Christian militia.
“Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters”, he said after meeting Muslim leaders at the Koudoukou mosque in the PK5 district, the last Muslim enclave in Bangui where tensions remain high after more than two years of violence.
Pope Francis responded that an ongoing question for Catholic moral theology is whether condoms in that case are an instrument to prevent death or a contraceptive – in which case they would violate church teaching on openness to life.
Since the Kyoto Protocol on climate change was adopted in 1997, “little has been accomplished” and “every year the problems get more serious”, he told journalists at a press conference on the papal plane during his return from a trip to Africa. Next month, the country will hold elections, and the list of candidates now includes former president Bozize, who is wanted in the Central African Republic for war crimes and is currently sanctioned by the United Nations.
Allen said that, in spite of the risks, Pope Francis had been highly motivated to visit the Central African Republic, likely out of a conviction that “this was a place, uniquely, where perhaps a Christian spiritual leader could move the ball in the direction of peace”.
Vehicle has torn apart by violence between armed Muslim and Christian factions since the end of 2012, with humanitarian organizations documenting civilian massacres, rape and torture committed by both sides.
Against the backdrop of inter-religious violence, interim head of state Catherine Samba-Panza has asked for forgiveness.
“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”, he said.
For too long, too many Central Africans have been suffering, the pope said. “God is peace, God salam“. The coup triggered violence between Muslim rebels and Christian militias.
Entering the stadium in a wheelchair decorated with flags from Central African Republic and elsewhere, Redepouzou approached the pope as he was making his way around the track in the popemobile. 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”.
Towns and villages are divided, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced into camps divided along religious lines. Christians, Muslims and members of the traditional religions have lived together in peace for many years.
Just a day before, Pope Francis had opened the Holy Door of Bangui’s cathedral – the first time a Pope has opened a Holy Door outside Rome.
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“The Christians and Muslims of this country are obliged to live together and love each other”. Earlier the French defense ministry warned that he should not go, and even the security forces in C.A.R. said they could not guarantee the pontiff’s safety, which would have surely tested even this pope’s faith.
