French and United Nations armoured vehicles and tanks jostled with ramshackle yellow taxis on the congested streets of Central African Republic’s capital on Saturday as security was beefed up a day before the arrival of Pope Francis.
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French officials warned the Vatican earlier this month that the trip to Central African Republic could put the pope as well as hundreds of thousands of believers at risk.
“Overcome difficulties, transform the negative into positive, and pray”, preached the pontiff, who was visibly moved after hearing the stories of Winnie Nansumba, a young Ugandan born with HIV, and Emmanuel Odokonyero, who was kidnapped and forced to be a child soldier. The gang in front of him appeared to stretch to the horizon.
“Remember, you are a people of martyrs”, he said.
Francis is in Uganda to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the canonization of the martyrs by Pope Paul VI. Contained in the halls, vivid sculptural shows depict the ugly killings: one guy tied at the ankles being dragged away, another splayed across a tree as a figure above him wields an ax.
Peter Sebandeke, a 73-year-old catechist, pondered the long line of people and gave up.
“It is a great joy and we are very touched that he is coming to visit”, said Merline Bambou, 24, as she left Sunday Mass wearing a two-piece dress made of traditional African fabric emblazoned with Pope Francis’ face.
“Everything has been done to ensure the safety of the pope… there is no real threat”, said CAR Public Security Minister Chrysostome Sambia, while admitting there have been reports of “ill-intentioned groups in some areas”.
In preparation for his visit, workers laboured day and night fixing the narrow road leading to the shrine in Namugongo. He will later celebrate Mass at a nearby Catholic shrine dedicated to 22 Catholic martyrs who were canonized in 1964. At the Catholic shrine, women are serving food and drinks to pilgrims just happy to watch the Mass on giant screens set up outside.
It’s testament to the country’s “humility” and “respect for human dignity”, the pope said in a speech on Friday at Entebbe, Uganda, shortly after arriving from neighboring Kenya.
A total of 45 Catholics and Protestants, many of them youngsters working as royal pages, were executed by King Mwanga of Buganda – a 19th century kingdom that was located in the south of present-day Uganda – between 1885 and 1887.
She says she didn’t mind the mud or the rain that soaked her overnight.
There were huge cheers as the Pope began the open-air ceremony at Namugongo, near Kampala.
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Francis, on the second leg of his first African tour, said mass for tens of thousands of people.
