The Sovereign Pontiff will visit Kinshasa, Goma and Juba in response to the invitation of Heads of State and Bishops of these two countries with recurrent violence.
Le Monde with AFP
Pope Francis will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan from July 2nd to 7th, two African countries gripped with the violence and to which it shows particular attention. The Sovereign Pontiff, 85, will first go into DRC from July 2nd to 5th, in the cities of Kinshasa and Goma, before visiting Juba, capital of South Sudan, from 5 to 7 July, in response to the Invitation of Heads of State and Bishops of the two countries, announced the director of the Holy See Press Room, Matteo Bruni, Thursday, March 3rd.
“The pope comes to revive the expectation of the Congolese people, who needs peace, security and well-being,” reacted M Gr Marcel Utembi Tapa, President of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), at a press conference in Kinshasa, a few minutes after the Vatican announcement. According to Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa, this visit is “an invaluable gift to our country, to our people, a people who today goes hard times”.
The DRC, a country of some 90 million inhabitants in persistent armed conflicts, would have 40% Catholics, 35% of Protestants or affiliated with the churches of awakening, 9% Muslims and 10% kimbanguistes (one Christian Church born in Congo), according to estimates. It is a secular state, but religion is omnipresent in the daily lives of Congolese. The Catholic Church, in particular, sometimes played a leading role in local politics.
Goma, the main city of North Kivu Province, in the east of the country, has been the scene of armed groups of armed groups for more than twenty-five years. The last visit of a Pope to Kinshasa dates back to August 1985, when Jean-Paul II had spent two days in the country, which was called Zaire.
Chronic instability
The visit to South Sudan will be the first of a Pope since the creation of the country, in 2011. Forted by chronic instability, this poor country of 11 million inhabitants sank in a bloody civil war, between 2013 and 2018, opposing the jurors enemies Riek Machar and Salva Kiir. It cost the lives of nearly 400,000 people and forced millions of others to flee their homes.
In spite of a peace agreement signed in 2018 and providing for a sharing of power in a national unity government, quarrels persist between the two rivals at the state summit and the violence continues. According to a UN report published Tuesday, at least 440 civilians were killed between June and September 2021 in clashes between factions on both sides.
The Holy See directly involved in the negotiations by holding a mediator role. In 2019, François had even invited to the Vatican Salva Kiir and Riek Machar for a spiritual retreat at the end of which he had knelt before them by imploring them to make peace, a symbolically strong gesture that had marked the spirits.
Since his election in 2013, François has visited Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, Central African Republic, Egypt and Morocco. His last African displacement goes back to September 2019: he had gone to Mozambique, in Madagascar and Mauritius. This apostolic trip will be the second second of the Argentine pope abroad in 2022, after his visit to Malta planned on April 2 and 3.