AFRICA - Pope Francis and his tireless pursuit of peace in the face of African conflicts

by Luca Mainoldi

Rome (Fides Agency) - Two images capture more than any others the relentless efforts of Pope Francis to put an end to the wars that are tearing African peoples apart.
The first image shows Pope Francis kneeling in the “Casa Santa Marta,” where he kisses the feet of South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the designated vice presidents present, including Riek Machar, the president's historic rival, and Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabio. It was April 11, 2019. With this extraordinary gesture, which came at the end of a two-day spiritual retreat attended by civil and church authorities from the African country, Pope Francis seemed to want to act on behalf of the peoples suffering from war, asking those in power who cause and fuel it to stop and give hope for peace.
The Bishop of Rome accompanied this gesture with the following words: “To the three of you who signed the Peace Agreement, I ask you, as a brother, remain in peace. I ask you from the heart. Let us move forward. There will be many problems, but don’t be afraid, go forward, resolve the problems. You have started a process; may it end well. Although struggles will arise, these should stay “within the office,hands united”. "In this way, from simple citizens, you will become Fathers of the Natio”. Allow me to ask this of you from the bottom of my heart, with my deepest feelings.”
South Sudan, a very young country that emerged in 2011 after seceding from Sudan, was plunged into a bloody civil war in December 2013 due to the conflict between the two rivals Salva Kiir and Riek Machar.
When Pope Francis made this gesture, the country was in a delicate phase following the signing of a transitional peace agreement in August 2018. The successor to Peter called on the parties to the conflict to resolve the issues that had led to the conflict in order to finally bring peace to the people. On this occasion, Pope Francis also announced his intention to visit South Sudan. This took place in February 2023. A visit under the banner of ecumenism. Pope Francis was accompanied by the Primate of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Pastor Iain Greenshields. An ecumenical pilgrimage of peace, as the Pope himself said: “I come as a pilgrim of peace.” In the ecumenical prayer that took place on February 4, 2023, at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, Pope Francis said: “My dear friends, those who call themselves Christians must choose a side. Those who follow Christ always choose peace; those who unleash war and violence betray the Lord and deny his Gospel. The attitude that Jesus teaches us is clear: to love all people because all are loved by our common Father in heaven as his children. The love of Christians is not only for their neighbor, but for everyone, because in Jesus everyone is our neighbor, our brother and sister, even our enemy (cf. Mt 5:38-48); all the more so those who belong to our own people, even if they are of a different ethnicity.”
Another emblematic image of Pope Francis' concern for the suffering of the peoples of the African continent is the opening of the Holy Door in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, on November 29, 2015, with which he anticipated the beginning of the Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy, which was to begin officially on December 8.
“Today Bangui becomes the spiritual capital of the world,” said Pope Francis in his homily. ”The Holy Year of Mercy comes ahead of time to this country. A country that has suffered for many years from war and hatred, from misunderstanding and lack of peace. But this suffering country also includes all those countries that bear the cross of war. Bangui will be the spiritual capital of prayer for the mercy of the Father. We all ask for peace, mercy, reconciliation, forgiveness, love. For Bangui, for the entire Central African Republic, for the whole world, for the countries suffering from war, we ask for peace!”
Pope Francis' relentless call for peace concerns not only the conflicts that are present in the media, but also the “forgotten” ones, many of which are scattered across the African continent: South Sudan, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, and Ethiopia. Pope Francis recalled that the repeatedly denounced “world war in pieces” appeals to the conscience of every individual.
(Fides Agency 28/4/2025)

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