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Kinshasa (AFP) – Pope Francis was received with great enthusiasm Thursday in Kinshasa’s Grand Stadium, where he called on young people to be “active parties” in the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is ravaged by unemployment and continuing violence.
On the beat of drums, hymns and traditional dances, the Holy Pontiff entered the Martyrs’ Stadium in the papal chariot, saluting and blessing the crowds.
More than 65,000 people, according to the organizers, participated in this meeting and they are thirsty for a message of peace in this Catholic country par excellence, which is ravaged by deadly confrontations in the east.
In the face of “tribalism” and “individualism”, the Pope appealed to the faithful to give preference to “the group”, calling on them to hold the hand of the person standing next to them and to remain silent and think about “people who have offended them.”
The Pope also criticized the rampant corruption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, telling the crowds, “Together we say: ‘No to corruption’.”
He added, “You are indispensable and you are responsible for your church and your country. You are the heir to a greater history that invites you to be an active party,” while conflicts, unemployment and power struggles weigh on the future of this country, where about 60 percent of the population is under the age of twenty.
In the stands of the stadium, thousands of teenagers and students, as well as parents, were singing chants and applauding. Many wore T-shirts and hats bearing the image of Pope Francis, the first pontiff to visit the country since John Paul II in 1985.
“The M3+ movement is killing many of us in the east of the country. I hope it all stops because it has been going on for a long time,” Sheila Mangombo, 21, told AFP, referring to the rebel movement the government accuses of receiving support from Rwanda.
The visit, on which the population builds great hopes, witnessed, on Wednesday, a series of emotional stations, during which Pope Francis said, “I make a fervent appeal to all persons, and to all bodies, internal and external, that have threads of war in their hands in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to plunder it, torture it and destabilize it,” stressing “Your tears are my tears.”
The Pope also denounced the “bloody and illegal exploitation of revolutions” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where violence by armed groups has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more.
The Pope was supposed to travel to the east of the country to visit Goma, but this stop was canceled due to security risks.
parallel authority
Despite the growing influence of the evangelical churches since the nineties of the last century, the Catholic Church still plays a major role in education, culture, politics, and social-health facilities in the country, where it often formed a parallel authority.
The 86-year-old pontiff, who is confined to a wheelchair due to knee pain, will meet Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Leconde at the papal nuncio.
Then, in the afternoon, he heads to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Congo, which was built in 1947, where he delivers a speech to priests and clerics.
On Wednesday, the Pope presided over an outdoor mass attended by more than a million people, according to the authorities, on the runway of an airport in the capital.
It is the fortieth foreign visit of Pope Francis since his arrival in the papal dynasty in 2013, and his fifth in Africa. After Kinshasa, Friday moves to Juba, the capital of the young country of South Sudan and one of the poorest countries in the world.
© 2023 AFP