Pope Francis arrived in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, yesterday for a four-day visit as a “pilgrim of reconciliation and peace,” seeking to bring comfort and hope to a battered people.
Speaking to an audience of political, religious, and civil leaders, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi elaborated on the three main challenges facing the country today: fighting terrorist attacks designed to fragment the country; economic development to create a more equitable society; and environmental protection and DRC’s rich biodiversity.
Conflict and insecurity caused by “armed groups and foreign powers greedy for the minerals in DRC’s earth with the direct and cowardly support of our neighboring country, Rwanda,” according to the President, are the government’s first and greatest challenges.
The international community is “complicit” in the conflict, continued President Tshisekedi, because of its “inaction and silence”. Over the last thirty years, “more than 10 million people have already been atrociously killed. Innocent women, even pregnant ones, are raped and disembowelled. Young people and children have had their throats slit, families, old people and children have been condemned to defy fatigue and exhaustion to wander from their homes in search of peace because of the abuses committed by these terrorists in the service of foreign interests.”, he said.
Echoing the President’s words, Pope Francis declared that the DRC was under “continual repetition of violent attacks” which the international community has “almost resigned itself” to. Condemning the “forgotten genocide” which is taking place in the East of the country, Pope Francis said “We need to know what is going on here, that the peace processes which I fully encourage, are supported by actions, and commitments are kept.”.
The DRC is an “immense country full of life” yet continues to be “tormented by war” suffering conflict and forced migration within its borders” and from “terrible forms of exploitation, unworthy of man and creation”. He warned against those who seek to “keep the country in violence in order to exploit it and do shameful business”, which only leads to “death and misery”. DRC battles, said the Pope, to retain its territorial integrity against attempts to break up the country.
Pope Francis said it was “tragic” that the African continent still suffers from various forms of exploitation. “Economic colonialism has followed political colonialism”. DRC has been “amply plundered” and has not been able to profit enough from its immense resources. “Get your hands off the Democratic Republic of Congo, get your hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: it is not a mine to be exploited or a land to be devalued. Let Africa be the protagonist of its own destiny”, he continued, adding that DRC and Africa deserves to be “respected and listened to”, become more valued internationally, and “have more weight and representation amongst nations”.
The President praised the Catholic Church for its long-standing efforts to provide education and health care in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite the fact that the DRC is a constitutionally secular state, the President stated that the lives of Congolese people remain deeply linked to religious convictions, and that the lives of families are largely based on religious values, with hospitality being a core trait. Approximately 45 million people, or 52 percent of the DRC’s population, are Catholic. Today, Wednesday, Pope Francis continues his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a Holy Mass at Ndola airport, where up to one million Congolese are expected to attend.
