(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis arrived in Uganda on Friday on the second leg of his 6-day pastoral visit to Africa. During his 2-day stay in the Ugandan capital Kampala, the Pope will visit the Anglican and Catholic shrines of the nation’s Namugongo martyrs and celebrate a Mass in their honour. The 45 martyrs (23 Anglicans and 22 Catholics) were killed during the persecution of Christians in the region from 1885-1887. The Pope’s other engagements in Kampala include a courtesy visit to Uganda’s President plus a series of meetings with diplomats, catechists and teachers, young people, bishops, religious and seminarians as well as a visit to a Catholic Care Home for poor and destitute people.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has concluded the first leg of his Apostolic Journey to Africa, travelling from Kenya to Uganda on Friday afternoon. The Holy Father will conclude his first visit to Africa with a stop in the Central African Republic, where he will arrive Sunday evening before returning to Rome the next day.
Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni was in Kenya with the Holy Father. She sent this wrap-up of the Pope’s visit:
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What will we remember most of Pope Francis’ visit after his farewell to the Kenyan people at Nairobi airport?
Of course his repeated appeals to authorities and policy-makers to bridge the gap between rich and poor, to protect African women and to nurture the youth, his urgent call to step up the war on climate change, his plea for unity between different faiths in the fight against terrorism.
But more than that, Kenyans say they will remember how his words and his gestures touched them personally and individually.
That’s because, for whom he is and in virtue of his very special human touch, Pope Francis never spoke to the people from a pedestal; he listened to what they were saying and responded with the understanding and sensitivity of a person who really cares for the life and the story of each individual.
A Kenyan teacher I spoke to at the end of the visit on Friday told me the people in Kangemi slum felt so blessed – yes, that’s a word they use a lot here in Kenya – because they did not even have to go to see him, he came to them.
So, I think what people here will remember most will be the fact that Francis brought joy and prayer, he shared their sorrows, their troubles and their hopes, he visibly enjoyed their great dancing, singing and sense of rhythm, he thanked them for welcoming him and told them he felt very much at home.
And in a country where corruption and collusion are seen as prime evils corrupting the system to the tangible detriment of the people, his shining example as an authentic and humble leader who shuns the trappings of wealth and materialism serves not only as an admonition, but is – above all – a powerful sign of encouragement on the path to making the world a better place.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Linda Bordoni spoke Friday to Fr Federico Lombardi and asked for his impressions on the Holy Father’s reception in Nairobi, Kenya.
Highlights for Fr Lombardi include the Mass of more than 100,000 people, meeting with clergy and religious and meeting with leaders of other faith groups. He said Pope Francis is “very happy, very well” and enjoying the enthusiasm of the African people.
Listen to Linda Bordoni’s full interview here:
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met with young people at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi on Friday morning where he addressed issues including corruption and tribalism.
Below find a section for the Pope’s words to youth at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi.
Thank you very much for the Rosaries you brought for me, thank you for your presence, your enthusiastic presence here. Thank you Lynette and thank you Manuel.
I ask myself something on the basis of all the questions that were asked by Lynette and Manuel. Why do divisions, wars and deaths occur? Fanatism, and divisions among young people? Why is there that desire to destroy? In the first page of the Bible, after all those wonderful things that the Lord had done , a brother kills another brother. The spirit of evil takes us to destruction and the spirit of evil takes us to a lack of unity, it takes us to tribalism, corruption and drugs. It takes us to a destruction out of fanatism. How do we make it such fanatical idealism doesn’t take us to be robbed of a brother or a sister. There is a word which might uncomfortable to the ear, but I don’t want to avoid it. You know it before me. You showed this word when you brought these expressions of Rosaries that you brought for me. The Bishop used it in the preparations with prayers for this meeting today. A man or a woman loses the worst of their humanity when they forget how to pray, because they feel powerful, because they don’t feel the need to ask the Lord for help in the face of so many tragedies. Life is full of difficulties, but there are different ways of looking at difficulties or you see that something that destroys stops you , or you regard them as a real opportunity. To all of you is open the choice, for me is this a path of destruction or is it an opportunity to overcome this difficulty for me, for a member of my family and for this country? Young people we don’t live in heaven, we live on earth and earth is full of difficulties and not only of opportunities but sometimes invitations that will lead you astray towards evil. But there is something that all of you have which is big, the capacity to choose. Which path do you want to choose? Which of these two do I want? To choose the path of difficulty and division or the path of opportunity, opportunity to overcome myself and overcome difficulties . There are some other difficulties which you mentioned which are real challenges and before that a question. Do you want to overcome challenges or be overcome by them? You’re like the sportsmen who come here, the women and men, all those who sold the ticket to others and have put the money in their pockets. You have to choose. Lynette mentioned challenge, tribalism, it can destroy, it can mean having your hands hidden behind your backs and having a stone in each hand to throw to others. Tribalism can only become with the ear, with the heart and with your hand. With your ear. What is your culture, why are you like this? Why do your cousins have these customs? Do they feel inferior or superior and with a heart? Once we’ve heard the response with our ears then it passes through to our hearts and then I extend my hand. If you don’t dialogue with each other, if you don’t listen to each other, then you’re going to have the division like dust, like a worm that grows in society. Yesterday was pronounced as a day of prayer and reconciliation. I want to invite you all today, to the young to you, to invite Lynette and Manuel to come up now and that we hold each other’s hands, lets hold hands together, lets stand up as a sign against bad tribalism. We’re all a nation, We are all a nation! That’s how are hearts must be. Tribalism isn’t just raising our hearts today, it’s an expression of our desire, of our hearts and this tribalism is a work that we must carry out every day against this tendency, to overcome this tendency of tribalism, it is a daily endeavour . It’s a work of the ear, you have to listen to others, it’s a work of opening your heart to others and it’s a work of your hands, you offer your hands to others.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis began his last day today in Kenya with a visit to slum dwellers in the heart of Nairobi. Speaking to the inhabitants of Kangemi slum he reminded them the Lord never forgets them.
In a hard-hitting appeal he asked for social inclusion, education, protection for families – a response to what he called the consequences of new forms of colonization.
In Nairobi, Linda Bordoni reports
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There are approximately 2.5 million slum dwellers in Nairobi representing 60% of the city’s population and occupying just 6% of the land.
One of the slums is called Kibera – it’s the biggest and most populated slum in the world.
But organizers have chosen to host Pope Francis’s visit is Kangemi. It’s known as “Nairobi’s friendly slum” because it is less dangerous – less harrowing in its desperate poverty – than some of the other 6 slums in the city.
The Pope’s visit to Kangemi was the first official event on this last day of his in Kenya. For him – I suspect – perhaps the most important and poignant as he has made walking with the poor a top priority of his pontificate right from the very beginning.
As Pope Francis’ pope-mobile bumped its way down the potholed dirt road taking him to the Church of St Joseph the Worker I couldn’t help but wonder whether he knows that that road has especially been improved for the occasion and that the other roads in the area are much worse. I am sure he does.
The Jesuit-led Church where parishioners and a selection of slum dwellers from all the other slums of the city spruced up to welcome him is small and simple. Just the kind of place I think Pope Francis feels at home in.
Speaking in his own Spanish, Pope Francis told those present they have a special place in his life, he said he knows their joys, their hopes and their sorrows: “How can I not denounce the injustices which you suffer?”
And although he was close and familiar in his attitude and unspoken body language, his words contained strong socio-political overtones as he talked of the dreadful injustice of urban exclusion and of the “wounds inflicted by minorities who cling to power and wealth, who selfishly squander while a growing majority is forced to flee to abandoned, filthy and run-down peripheries”.
As he always had since his arrival here in Kenya, the Pope visibly appreciated the beautiful singing and dancing put on for him. This is something observers keep commenting on at every occasion. What many don’t realize it’s part of life here. Much more than entertainment, this is how Africans across the continent communicate emotions, celebrate rites of passage, and help strengthen the bonds between communities and tribes.
But there was time for more as well: being together, holding hands, embracing children. And lots of hope.
Hope that the government will continue to listen to the people and heed Pope Francis’ urgent call to give all families dignified housing, access to drinking water, a toilet, reliable streets, squares, schools, hospitals, areas for sport, recreation and art.
The basic services each person deserves on the basis of his or her infinite human dignity.
In Nairobi with Pope Francis, I’m Linda Bordoni
(from Vatican Radio)…