Central African Republic’s government is deploying around 500 police and gendarmes to secure the visit.
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The conflict has effectively torn the country in two. But Francis announced a few weeks ago that he would officially open the Holy Door of Bangui’s cathedral during his visit to kick off the yearlong celebration here. Muslims and Christians have since split into segregated communities.
Speaking slowly in French, he appealed for a “unity in diversity” that shuns divisions along political or religious lines. The residents range in age from 11 years to 107 years, said Bishop Robert Muhiirwa of Fort Portal, chair of the Ugandan bishops’ health commission.
“It’s about living and building from the marvelous diversity of the world around us, avoiding the temptation of fearing the other, of what is unfamiliar, of those who don’t belong to our ethnic group, our political choices or political confession”.
“I come to the Central African Republic as a pilgrim of peace and as an apostle of hope”, the pope said on his official Twitter feed as his plane touched down at around 10:00 am (0900 GMT) at Bangui’s global airport where he was greeted by acting auto president Catherine Samba-Panza.
Cheering crowds lined his motorcade route – about five kilometers (three miles) of it in his open-sided popemobile. Troops stood guard in the grasslands off the tarmac, and Francis’ bodyguards stood close.
Special security forces wearing patches of the yellow and white colours of the Vatican flag were on hand to help his normal Vatican security retinue.
While ecstatic crowds celebrated the pope’s visit and message of reconciliation, thousands of Muslims remained essentially blockaded in their neighborhood of PK5, unable to leave because of the armed Christian militia fighters called the anti-Balaka who surround its perimeter.
Pope Francis has arrived in Uganda on the second leg of his Africa pilgrimage, honouring the country’s most famous Christians and declaring Africa the “continent of hope”.
On Monday he is due to visit a mosque in the capital’s Muslim enclave that has become a shelter for throngs of Muslims driven from their homes.
In this tense atmosphere, the Pope, who will also visit evangelical Christians and a camp for displaced people, expressed the hope that his presence would contribute “to dressing the wounds and opening the way to a more serene future for Central African Republic and all its inhabitants”.
As many as 2 million people were expected to attend the Mass, including Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the president of South Sudan and the descendant of the king who ordered the deaths.
The history of Uganda’s martyrs has helped shape the Catholic Church here, with huge numbers of pilgrims flocking to the Namugongo shrine, many of them Africans arriving from as far away as Congo and Tanzania.
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Pope Francis traveled to Uganda’s holiest shrine on Saturday, paying tribute to 19th century Christian martyrs killed for their faith, including for protecting young boys in the royal court from abuse by the king.
