By Arnold Neliba
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 4, 2022 (CISA) – Pope Francis is set to visit Kinshasa and Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo from July 2 to 5 and thereafter head to Juba in South Sudan from July 5 to 7.
The announcement was made on Thursday, March 3, by the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) and the Government of DRC.
“Pope Francis will visit our country 37 years after Pope John Paul II, a historic visit… Our government welcomes this historic announcement. We must all prepare ourselves to welcome this distinguished guest. It will be a moment of great communion,” said the government spokesman Patrick Muyaya. He added, in Swahili, “Karibu kwetu François (welcome here Francis)”.
“Since the visit of John Paul II, so many things have happened. There have been wars, the country has experienced many vicissitudes so that the DRC that Pope Francis will know is very different from the country that John Paul II knew,” said Archbishop Marcel Utembi of Kisangani and chairman of CENCO.
The Pope’s visit according to Archbishop Utembi will “revive the hope of the Congolese people who need peace, security and well-being.”
While calling for the mobilization to welcome the Holy Father, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo says the visit is “an invaluable gift to the DRC and the Congolese people who are going through difficult times today”. He called for “a spiritual preparation for this meeting of grace and blessing.”
From DRC, Pope Francis will travel to South Sudan, Africa’s youngest nation, the Republic of South Sudan. When the nation was born on July 9, 2011, after voting in a referendum to secede from the Arab-dominated Sudan in the North, the Holy See supported their quest for self-realization.
Interestingly, three years later on February 22, 2013, the Holy See and the Republic of South Sudan established diplomatic relations at the level of Apostolic Nunciature with a residence in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to Archbishop Stephen Ameyu of the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba, the objective of the Pope’s visit is to stand in solidarity with the people of South Sudan. This will be a historic visit in that Pope Francis will be the first pontiff to visit South Sudan.
Francis has visited Africa four times since his election in 2013. He visited Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic in 2015. In 2017, he went to Egypt and in 2019 he visited Morocco, and later that year Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
Copyright © 2002-2024 THE BEACON INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. All rights reserved.
another mc.rufus interactive web design