Pope Francis begins today in Kinshasa a seven-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo) and South Sudan, two countries hit by war, famine and natural disasters linked to climate change.
The 86-year-old Francisco’s 40th international trip, which is expected to be particularly challenging due to his mobility problems, was scheduled for July last year, but a pain in his knee caused it to be postponed and, since then, the security situation in the region has become more complicated in both countries.
In recent months, eastern DR Congo has been the scene of an upsurge of violence, particularly on the border with Rwanda, an area with a subsoil rich in coltan, essential for the electronic equipment industry, and where there are more than 100 active armed groups, namely the March 23 Movement (M23), which is why the visit to Goma, planned in the initial programme, was suspended.
John Paul II was in Goma in 1980 and 1985, when the country was still called Zaire, but the capital of North Kivu province is currently particularly vulnerable to M23 attacks.
South Sudan, the youngest country in the world, independent from Sudan since 2011, has never been visited by a pontiff.
Francisco’s journey begins with his arrival in Kinshasa, which he will travel by car from the capital’s airport to the Palace of the Nation for a welcome ceremony and meeting with President Felix Tshisekedi, before delivering his first speech. in the country.
The leader of the Catholic Church will appeal for dialogue as a vehicle to achieve peace, in a speech that has as its context the death of more than 200 civilians and the flight from their homes of almost 52,000 people in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in the last six weeks , while more than 1.5 million people remain in the region as internally displaced people.
Half of DR Congo’s population, around 45 million people, are Catholic and the church has enormous influence in the country. Francis will celebrate mass in the area of Ndolo airport in Kinshasa, where about a million people are expected.
Failing to travel to Goma, the Pope will meet with a group of victims from the east of the country, who will testify to what they have experienced, at the nunciature in Kinshasa, where he will meet with representatives of various Catholic charities.
On Friday, the Pope will travel to South Sudan, a country whose gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of 322 dollars (295 euros) places it among the poorest in the world and where the majority of the population survives through international aid. Some 8.3 million South Sudanese, 75% of the population, struggle every day to find enough to eat.
The trip to South Sudan is an unprecedented trip for a pope, who is traveling with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and Church of Scotland moderator Jim Wallace, as the country has a large Anglican presence.
In April 2019, the three religious leaders convened a spiritual retreat at the Vatican to help the peace process in South Sudan and during this initiative, in a symbolic gesture of humility, Francis knelt down and kissed the feet of the South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and opposition leader Riek Machar, and urged the two warring leaders to press ahead with the peace deal signed the previous year.
The call for the maintenance of this peace agreement, which has registered mitigated progress, punctuated by recurrent outbreaks of violence, will be the focus of the pope’s speech to the South Sudanese authorities at the Presidential Palace in Juba.
On Saturday, the pope will meet with the clergy in the Cathedral of Santa Teresa, and in the afternoon he will meet with almost two million internally displaced people, from whom he will hear various testimonies.
The pontiff will also hold a mass at the mausoleum of John Karang, former leader of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), killed in a helicopter crash in 2005, and whose influence was fundamental to the founding of South Sudan.
