The Pope Visits The Congo

 

‘Amnesty of the Heart’

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Pope Francis kicked off a visit to Africa this week, telling crowds of more than a million people in the Congo to forgive those who have harmed them, while admonishing world powers to “stop choking” Africa, the Associated Press reported.

On his first stop in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, crowds stretched for miles, singing and dancing, with the Congolese traveling from across the country to see the pontiff because his visits to other regions were canceled due to insecurity. Congo has seen a resurgence of long-simmering violence as rebel groups continue to seize control of more eastern territory, forcing millions to flee.

He said the world must pay attention.

“We cannot grow accustomed to the bloodshed that has marked this country for decades, causing millions of deaths that remain mostly unknown elsewhere,” the Pope told high-level officials just after arriving. “What is happening here needs to be known.”

The Pope also gave a nod to the issues many African countries continue to grapple with, including ethnic tensions, forced migration, and hunger and conflict, laying the blame for some of these issues on the centuries of plundering of Africa’s mineral and natural wealth by foreign powers, the Guardian reported.

And he noted that despite its natural wealth, Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world due to the exploitation of its natural resources, especially cobalt in Congo’s case, used in smartphone batteries.

“Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa!” Francis said. “Stop choking Africa. It is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.”

On Thursday, the Pope was set to address thousands of youngsters in a stadium for 80,000, Agence France Presse reported. That followed an open-air Mass Wednesday that drew a million people.

On Friday, the Pope will fly to South Sudan, where he has previously tried to broker peace between the rival rebel factions. A 2018 peace accord continues to hold even as fighting goes on, contributing to one of the world’s biggest refugee crises.