Over one million attend papal mega mass in Kinshasa
Pontiff’s first leg of a six-day trip to Africa will also include South Sudan
More than a million worshippers turned out for a papal mass in DR Congo’s capital yesterday, organisers said, on the second day of Pope Francis’s visit to the conflict-torn country.
Many of the faithful in Kinshasa, a deeply observant megacity of some 15 million people, began to arrive at Ndolo airport on Tuesday night to assure themselves of a spot.
Francis entered the airport grounds aboard his popemobile and was greeted by singing and dancing crowds before the mass began at around 9:30 am. Organisers said that over one million people were on the airport tarmac.
Homily in Italian
The attendees included Kinshasa residents as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, and leading opposition politicians.
Francis wished the crowd peace in Lingala, one of the DRC’s four national languages and the everyday language of Kinshasa.
The pope delivered the rest of his homily in Italian — which was translated into the DRC’s official language French — in which he urged the faithful “not to give in to divisions.” The 86-yearold pontiff had arrived in the DRC on Tuesday, on the first leg of a six-day trip to Africa that will also include troubled South Sudan. Huge crowds had also thronged the streets for a glimpse of the popemobile as Francis drove past.
‘Massively plundered’
A former Belgian colony the size of continental western Europe, the DRC is Africa’s most Catholic country.
During a speech to politicians and dignitaries in Kinshasa’s presidential palace on Tuesday, Francis denounced the “economic colonialism” he suggested had wreaked lasting damage in the DRC.
“This country, massively plundered, has not benefited adequately from its immense resources,” he said.
Despite abundant mineral reserves, the DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world. About two-thirds of Congolese people live on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.
Francis is also due to meet victims of the conflict in eastern Congo in Kinshasa yesterday following the mega-mass.
After that, he will talk to representatives from charitable organisations.
The DRC’s east has long been plagued by dozens of armed groups. Since late 2021, M23 rebels have also captured swathes of territory in North Kivu province, coming close to its capital Goma.