Pope Francis has celebrated one of his biggest Masses, with around a million attendees in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, estimates say.
According to BBC News reports, huge crowds started to gather in Kinshasa on Tuesday, February 1, well before dawn, including scores of schoolgirls dressed in white who danced along the Pope’s route.
In Kinshasa, the Pope met the DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi and delivered a speech condemning the historical exploitation of Africa’s resources, which he described as “economic colonialism”.
During his arrival at N’dole airport, the Pope was greeted by jubilant scenes “my joy is too huge that I think I am going to cry,” Christella Bola told the Reuters News Agency.
A 700-person choir, that had been practising together long before the pontiff was originally due to visit last July, had been assembled specifically for the event.
There had been some murmurings that the Pope has not been as critical of DR Congo’s political leadership as some had hoped, but the Mass was a joyful event, and the pontiff did have a strong message of peace for those engaging in conflict in the country.
Mattieu Nzuzi, one of those in the crowd said he hoped the pontiff’s visit would usher an end to the violence in the east of the country, near the border with Rwanda.
“I hope that the visit here of the Pope to the Congo will bring peace to our country because over there, near Rwanda, the people are suffering,” he said.
Warring sides should forgive one another and grant their opponents a “great amnesty of the heart”, he stated.
Further, the second day of his visit coincides with a continuation of fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 militant group.
Read Also:EAC and AU calls for peace talk negotiation in DRC
Wednesday’s Mass was tipped to be one of Pope Francis’ largest-ever Masses, second only to one held in the Philippines in 2015, according to Christopher Lamb, the Rome correspondent of the Catholic Magazine the Tablet.
In an interview with the BBC’s News day radio program, he said Catholicism was growing in Africa, “This is the future of the church and the growth of the Catholic Church in Africa really is so important to the future of Catholicism.”
Read Also:Peace Dialogue in DRC as Clashes Continue in Eastern Part
He also addressed DR Congo’s plight, as minerals have played a key role in more than three decades of armed conflict there. “Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hands off Africa, stop choking Africa, it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.”
A planned visit to the Eastern city of Goma was cancelled due to security reasons. The eastern part is currently facing escalating violence as security services fight against M23 armed militia groups.
According to the United Nations (UN), about six million people have been forced to flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel at Switch TV
