The most hazardous stop may be the Central African Republic, where dozens of people have been killed since September in violence between mostly Muslim Selena rebels and Christian anti-balaka militias.
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Order a gift subscription to NCR, and we’ll throw in a little something extra for you. The atmosphere was overwhelmingly joyous. It was not clear if he made a decision to remove it.
Afterward, the pope celebrated a Mass outside the nearby Catholic shrine to the martyrs.
During his two days in Uganda, Francis is expected to touch on some of the same themes he emphasised during the first leg of his trip in Kenya: corruption, poverty and giving young Christians hope and encouragement.
“If there’s one country he should visit, it’s South Sudan”, said 37-year-old Anthony Beda from South Sudan, wearing a pope badge and waving a flag with the pontiff’s face on it. Over the past month, at least 75 people have been killed in the capital city of Bangui alone.
There has been opposition to his visit here, and it has become clear that some with vested interests do not want him to come because his presence here will bring global attention to the dramatic situation in this country, which is rich in minerals such as uranium, diamonds and oil, but at the present moment it is to all intents and purposes a failed state.
According to U.N. AIDS, because of sexual violence and lack of access to education, young women are particularly in danger in Uganda.
He’s telling the clergy and nuns that Jesus has chosen them, and that they should follow Christ.
“Sometimes challenges in slums nearly cause us to despair and some people give up working in slums”, said Sister Mari Killeen, who works with the less fortunate. At the same time, modern life also offers so many distractions which can tiresome our consciences, dissipate our zeal, and even lure us into that “spiritual worldliness” which eats away at the foundations of the Christian life. “HIV can be prevented and managed”.
People cheered when he said that keeping water from people is a great injustice.
“And because we’re brothers, we want peace”, he said. “He can do the same in us in every single thing that we experience”.
From early morning to late evening, Saturday Nov. 28, Pope Francis highlighted in different ways the cost of Christian discipleship, yesterday and today, in this land that is known as “the pearl of Africa”.
Gay rights activists in Uganda said before the visit that they hoped the pope would make a gesture of tolerance to homosexuals. Those pillars are: Do not forget (the memory of the Ugandan martyrs); be faithful (to that memory and to their own vocations); and pray.
Adoum Silick, 45, acknowledged the risk in venturing to the grounds of the cathedral but said “sometimes we have to be courageous”. “If you are a sinner, ask for forgiveness”. Noting that there are dioceses in the country that have many clergy and others that have very few, the Pope said fidelity means having a diocesan bishop who is generous in offering priests to a neighbouring diocese that is in need.
Despite a 2014 ceasefire between largely Muslim and Christian armed factions there, violent skirmishes have continued. More than 3,000 peacekeepers from the MINUSCA U.N. mission will also be deployed and French troops will be on alert as well.
The country is now being led by a transition government, which is supposed to facilitate new elections for a permanent government in December. He is then set to visit a refugee camp and meet with young people.
Rights groups hope the Argentinian pope will address the violence on his two-day trip during which he will visit a mosque in Bangui’s flashpoint PK5 district, a maze of red dirt roads and flimsy shacks that has been at the heart of the sectarian conflict tearing apart the impoverished nation. It can lead to violence, like female genital mutilation (FGM).
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It is the first time this Pope has been to Africa.
