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 spiritual leader of the Catholic Church made a rock star-like entrance to the Martyrs’ Stadium aboard his “papamobile”, greeting and blessing the crowd once morest 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, an acute problem in the DRC, telling the crowd: “All together let’s say: + no corruption +!”
“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 approximately 60% of the inhabitants are 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 kills 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.
Highly anticipated, this visit surrounded by immense fervor was marked on Wednesday by a sequence charged with heavy emotion during which Francis launched a “vibrant appeal” in the face of the “cruel atrocities” perpetrated in the east of the country, following hearing 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.
He was supposed to travel to the east of the country, to Goma, but this step was canceled due to security risks.
– Counter-power –
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.
The 86-year-old pope, who travels in a wheelchair due to knee pain, is due to meet Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde at the end of the morning at the apostolic nunciature, “embassy” of the Holy See in the DRC.
Then he will go in the middle of the followingnoon to the Notre-Dame du Congo cathedral, built in 1947, where he will deliver a speech in front of priests and religious.
As usual during his travels, the Argentinian Jesuit will end this third day of visit with a private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus.
On Wednesday, the pope 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.
This is the fortieth international trip of the head of the Catholic Church since his election in 2013, the fifth on the African continent.
On Friday, he will join Juba, capital of South Sudan, the youngest state in the world and among the poorest on the planet.
