(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis appealed for peace and reconciliation in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday.
The central African nation has been experiencing another period political crisis ahead of the expiry of President Joseph Kabila’s term of office.
The DRC is preparing for unrest – including protests and violence, when the mandate of President Joseph Kabila, whom critics accuse of seeking to stay in power indefinitely, expires on Monday.
Click below to hear our report
“I ask you all to pray that dialogue in the Democratic Republic of Congo might unfold with serenity,” the Holy Father said in remarks to pilgrims and tourists that followed the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer, “in order that all manner of violence be avoided, and [to pray] for the good of the whole country.”
In Kinshasa, the capital, police have set up checkpoints, while soldiers in armoured vehicles have been deployed to strategic points throughout the city, which has some 12 million inhabitants.
Flights into the DRC have been empty, while many members of the country’s wealthy elite have already fled.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, exactly a week before Christmas Day, 2016.
In the reflection he shared with the people in the square ahead of the traditional noonday Marian devotion, the Holy Father focused on the upcoming Christmas feast, exactly one week away at the time he delivered his remarks.
After praying the Angelus , the Holy Father returned to the theme.
Click below to hear our report
“During this this week let us look for a few moments in which to pause, have a bit of silence, and imagine Our Lady and St. Joseph on their way to Bethlehem,” he said. “The journey – the fatigue of it, but also the joy of it – the commotion, and then their anxiety over finding a place to stay, the worry – and so on,” he added.
“In all this,” concluded Pope Francis, “the crèche scene helps us very much: let us seek to enter into the true Nativity – that of Jesus, in order to receive the grace of this feast, which is a grace of love, of humility and of tenderness.”
(from Vatican Radio)…