Democratic Republic of Congo.- Pope Francis was received with fervor this Tuesday in Kinshasawhere it started a visit four days to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), first stage of your trip to africa that It will also take you to South Sudan.
Since midmorning, the inhabitants of Kinshasa had begun to congregate around the international airport, where the pope’s plane landed at 2:35 p.m. (1:35 p.m. GMT). To the sound of songs, drums, fanfares and tom-tom, the crowd was growing as the hours passed, more and more dense and impatient.
“I’ve seen an angel!”, said a girl, elated after seeing the pope in his popemobile. In the journey of about 25 km to the center of the city, the official convoy was received by tens of thousands of people that crowded the main avenues of this great city of some 15 million inhabitants.
“Do not stay at home tomorrow, come to receive the Pope”, On Monday, a government spokesman asked the inhabitants of Kinshasa, the capital of a country where the church plays an important role in society and politics.
“I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to see him in front”, Maggie Kayembe, in her 30s, told AFP. “Wherever he goes, he always prays for peace, and peace is what we really need.” added the woman.
Initially scheduled for July 2022, lThe visit had to be postponed due to the knee pain he suffers Francisco, 86, who uses a wheelchair, as well as the security issues in Gomain the northeast of the country, stage that was cancelled.
“We have been waiting for a year, it is a beautiful trip, I would have liked to go to Goma but because of the war I can’t,” Jorge Bergoglio declared to the journalists who accompanied him on the plane.
Violence and poverty on his 40th international trip since his election in 2013, and the fifth to the African continent, the Argentine pope will call for the silence of the guns in a country devastated by violence and where two thirds of its 100 million inhabitants live on less than 2.15 dollars a day.
The African country has been facing for months the resurgence of the armed group M23, that has conquered wide swathes of the North Kivu territorya province bordering Rwanda, which the DRC government accuses of interference.
The papal visit it is celebrated two weeks after a deadly attack claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in a Pentecostal church in that province.
call before Zaire, with riches such as copper, cobalt, gold, diamonds, uranium, coltan and tinthe DRC has a history marked by the colonialism, slavery and abuse. It is also the land of Patrice Lumumba, an African anti-colonialist leader, who was the prime minister of the independent Congo in 1960, overthrown and assassinated.
Vigil and mass mass, after the reception ceremony at the airport, the head of the catholic church aboard his popemobile, he will tour the streets that lead to the Palace of the Nationwhere he awaits President Felix Tshisekedi. Before the authorities, the diplomatic corps and representatives of civil society will deliver their first speech.
“It will be the occasion to send a strong message to politicians and address the issue of corruption”says Samuel Pommeret, from the NGO CCFD Terre Solidaire, referring to one of the great evils that are eating away at that country.
On Tuesday night, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people will participate in the prayer vigil at Kinshasa’s N’dolo airportwhere they will spend the night, before the mass on Wednesday before more than a million faithful.
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Francis will also meet with victims violence, displaced persons, members of the clergy and representatives of charities. With 52 million Catholics, the former Belgian colony represents the future for Catholicism that is losing followers in Europe and Latin America.
The Pope will travel on Friday to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, the youngest state in the world and one of the poorest on the planet where it will remain until February 5.
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