Vatican City, Sep 11, 2019 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Upon his return to the Vatican after a six-day trip to Africa, Pope Francis said Wednesday that he hopes the “seeds of peace” sown during his apostolic journey will bear fruit in Mozambique, Madagascar, and Mauritius.
“I thank God who allowed me to make this journey as a pilgrim of peace and hope,” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 11.
“The hope of the world is Christ, and his Gospel is the most powerful leaven of fraternity, freedom, justice and peace for all people. With my visit, in the footsteps of holy missionaries, I tried to bring this leaven, the leaven of Jesus, to the Mozambican, Malagasy and Mauritian populations,” he said.
Pope Francis said that the Church will continue to support the peace process in Mozambique, which advanced in August, and he thanked the Catholic community of Saint’Egidio for their continued contributions to this dialogue.
“In Mozambique I went to spread seeds of hope, peace and reconciliation in a land that has suffered so much in the recent past due to a long armed conflict, and that last spring was hit by two cyclones that caused very serious damage,” the pope said.
Mozambique fought a civil war from 1977 to 1992 between Frelimo, a socialist party that has ruled the country since it gained independence in 1975, and Renamo, an anti-communist organization. Renamo began a new insurgency in 2013, a conflict that only came to an end in August with the signing of a peace agreement in Serra da Gorongosa.
“The Church continues to accompany the peace process, which has taken a step forward on August 1st with a new agreement between the parties,” the pope said.
“Let us give thanks to God, and ask him that the seeds sown during this apostolic journey will bear abundant fruit for the people of Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius,” he said.
The pope reflected that there was much joy amid the rain during the Mass he celebrated in Maputo, Mozambique.
“My visit to Mozambique culminated in Mass, celebrated in the stadium in the rain, but we were all happy. The songs, the religious dances … so much happiness. The rain didn’t matter,” Francis said.
“And there resounded the appeal of the Lord Jesus: ‘Love your enemies’, the seed of true revolution, that of love, which extinguishes violence and generates fraternity,” he added.
After three days in Mozambique, Pope Francis traveled to Madagascar, where he visited the country’s “City of Friendship,” a town built through the leadership of an Argentine priest who sought solidarity with the poorest of the poor.
Pope Francis reflected that Madagascar is a country rich in natural resources and natural beauty, but marked by much poverty.
“I hope that, inspired by its traditional spirit of solidarity, the Malagasy people can overcome adversity and build a future of development by combining respect for the environment and social justice,” he said.
In his meeting with bishops in Madagascar, Pope Francis said that they renewed together a commitment to care for the poor and to be “sowers of peace and hope.”
Pope Francis ended his six-day trip to Africa on the island nation of Mauritius. “I chose it because it is a place of integration between different ethnic groups and cultures,” Pope Francis said, noting the different immigrants from India and other countries who have come to call the tourist destination home over the past two centuries.
Mauritius obtained its independence on March 12, 1968, after more than 200 years of colonization by the French and the British following years of Dutch and Portuguese settlements.
The country is made up of many different ethnic groups, primarily Indo-Mauritian, Creole, Sino-Mauritian, and Franco-Mauritian. The primary religion on the island is Hinduism, followed by Catholicism and Islam.
“There is strong inter-religious dialogue, and also friendship between the heads of different religious denominations. Something that would seem strange to us, but they thus experience the friendship that is natural,” Francis reflected.
The pope said that in Mauritius he found a beautiful bouquet of flowers upon entering the chancery. It was sent as a gift from the grand imam as a sign of brotherhood.
Francis said that he was also impressed to see Muslims and Catholics working together in an HIV treatment clinic in Mozambique run by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay movement centered on peace and helping the poor.
On his return flight to Rome, Pope Francis said during an in-flight press conference that he was touched by how the African people in the crowds lifted up their children for him to see.
“Africa is full of life,” Pope Francis said. “It is the treasure of the poor, the child.”
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So they are meeting on a problem that currently has good stats but not meeting on the presence of active gays in the clergy like the orgy incident in Rome and the two priests caught in a sexual act in Miami with each other last week and the male prostitute in the Milan area two months ago who avers having had sinful contact with 36 priests. But the meeting is about the largely gay area that is currently quiet…abuse of minors. Well that sounds like we don’t need consultancy help.
Does anybody have any information about what is happening to Cardinal Pell? There’s been blank silence for quite some time, and considering that there seems to be a fair amount of evidence that he is being railroaded, I’m concerned.
I wish I could help you out there Leslie. It seems that for some reason things have stalled. As far as I know though: the trial is still going ahead. I have heard him speak a few times and met him once. I have always had grave fears as to there being a fair trial. He said himself once that he doesn’t go making things up. He simply upholds what the Church teaches, come fair weather or foul. There are those who hate him for it.
Stephen in Australia.
I should have mentioned. There is an Australian journal of conservative opinion. The name of it is Quadrant. When in a newsagents; I was amazed to see an essay in it, written very recently by Cardinal Pell. The essay is titled – The Church in a Post Christian World. It is dated: September 12Th 2018. Search Quadrant and you will be able to see it. However, unless you subscribe, you won’t be able to read it in full just yet. The whole matter is of great concern. Hope this has been some help.
Stephen.
39 mnutes ago..ny times…Di Nardo, president of Bishops facing accusation of transferring molestor…..
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/12/us/ap-us-clergy-abuse-dinardo.html
Bergoglio’s synod on “the protection of minors” is a sham. As we all know, the problem is not pedophilia but massive homosexuality among 50% to 70% of all priests and the priest-bishop-Cardinal homosexual networks that are strangling the Church. Still less does the Church need another synod to talk rather than to act. Again, as everyone should know, it was Bergoglio who unilaterally destroyed the bishop sexual abuse investigation-and-trial proceeding that his own sexual abuse commission had strongly recommended. Since Bergoglio has doubled down on his delay-deflect-and-deny strategy with this cynical synod announcement, it is time for the DOJ and the Attorney-Generals in all 50 states to treat him and the American PervChurch for what they are: criminals and moral degenerates.
Paul, I don’t doubt that there are men who are priests and who are gay. There are a few I’ve met that I suspect lean that way. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they are faithful to their vow of chastity. You claim that 50 – 70% of priests are gay. From where do you get that statistic? I’ve been around priests all my life. My closest friend is a priest. I know he’s not gay and neither are the men I’ve known who are priests. Please tell me from where you get this statistic.
It might come from this much discussed and cited 2003 essay by Fr. Paul Mankowski, in which he states: “I would estimate that between 50 and 60 percent of the men who entered religious life with me in the mid-70s were homosexuals who had no particular interest in the Church, but who were using the celibacy requirement of the priesthood as a way of camouflaging the real reason for the fact that they would never marry.” Or perhaps from Sipes.
I think you are quite correct. The Bishop’s Conferences have no canonical authority at all. This is like a high school principal asking the Student Council to address the problem of incompetent teachers. Except that it doesn’t sound so obviously stupid.