Welcomed in an overheated atmosphere Thursday in the great stadium of Kinshasa, Pope Francis invited young people to be “actors” of the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), plagued by unemployment and endemic violence.
To the rhythm of drums, songs and traditional dances, the head of the Catholic Church made a rock star-like entrance to the Martyrs stadium aboard his “papamobile”, greeting and blessing the crowd against a backdrop of a frenzied sound.
More than 65,000 people, according to the organizers, took part in this meeting, eager for a message of peace in this very Catholic country plagued by deadly exactions in the east.
Faced with “tribalism” and “individualism”, Francis called on the faithful to favor the “community”, inviting them to take their neighbor by the hand and then to be silent while thinking “of people who have offended (them) “.
The pope also vilified corruption, a scourge in the DRC. “All together let’s say: no corruption!” Asked the pope, while some faithful launched a slogan hostile to President Felix Tshisekedi.
“You are indispensable and responsible for your Church and your country. You are part of a bigger story that calls you to be an actor,” he said as conflict, unemployment and power struggles darken the situation. future of the DRC, where around 60% of the population is under 20 years old.
In the stands, thousands of teenagers, students but also parents sang while clapping their hands, under intense heat. Many were dressed in T-shirts, shirts or caps bearing the likeness of Jorge Bergoglio, the first pope to visit the country since John Paul II in 1985.
“The M23 is killing a multitude of us in the east, I would like all this to stop because it has been going on for too long,” 21-year-old Sheila Mangumbu told AFP, referring to the accused rebel group. by the government to be supported by Rwanda.
The 86-year-old Pope, who uses a wheelchair due to knee pain, then met Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde at the Apostolic Nunciature, the Holy See’s “embassy” in the DRC.
Thursday afternoon, during a meeting with priests and religious at the Notre-Dame du Congo cathedral, a large orange brick building built in 1947, he invited the assembly not to give in to the “temptation of worldly comfort “.
Despite the growing influence of the Evangelical Churches since the 1990s, the Catholic Church retains a major role in education, culture, politics or the maintenance of socio-health infrastructures in the DRC, where it has often acted as a counter -power.
Long-awaited, this visit surrounded by immense fervor was marked on Wednesday by a sequence charged with heavy emotion, when François launched a “vibrant appeal” in the face of the “cruel atrocities” perpetrated in the east of the country, after having heard the testimonies of victims.
“Your tears are my tears, your suffering is my suffering,” said François, who intends to draw attention to the dramas hitting certain “peripheries” of the world.
The sovereign pontiff was also “outraged” by the “bloody and illegal exploitation of the wealth” of the DRC, where violence by armed groups has killed hundreds of thousands of people and thrown millions more on roads.
On Wednesday, the pope had celebrated an open-air mass which, according to the authorities, gathered more than a million faithful, on an airport in the east of the capital.
On Friday morning, he will deliver a final speech to the Congolese bishops before heading to Juba, capital of South Sudan, the youngest state in the world and among the poorest on the planet.
Expected at 3:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. GMT), the pope will pay a courtesy visit to the president and vice-presidents, then deliver a speech to the authorities at the presidential palace.
This is the fortieth international trip of the head of the Catholic Church since his election in 2013, the third in sub-Saharan Africa.
02/02/2023 17:54:02 – Kinshasa (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
