<\/p>\n
Pope Francis arrived yesterday in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo today, for a four-day visit as a \u201cpilgrim of reconciliation and peace\u201d, seeking to bring comfort and hope to a bruised population.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Download document 1: https:\/\/bit.ly\/3Yhb5hw Speaking to an audience of political, religious and civil leaders, Felix Tshisekedi, President of DRC, expanded on the three principal challenges facing the DRC today: fighting terrorist attacks designed to fragment the country; economic development to create a more equitable society, and protecting the environment and DRC\u2019s rich biodiversity.<\/p>\n Conflict and insecurity created by \u201carmed groups and foreign powers greedy for the minerals in DRC\u2019s earth with the direct and cowardly support of our neighbouring country, Rwanda\u201d is the first and greatest challenge for the government, said the President.<\/p>\n The international community is \u201ccomplicit\u201d in the conflict, continued President Tshisekedi, because of its \u201cinaction and silence\u201d. Over the last thirty years, \u201cmore 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.\u201d, he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n Echoing the President\u2019s words, Pope Francis declared that the DRC was under \u201ccontinual repetition of violent attacks\u201d which the international community has \u201calmost resigned itself\u201d to. Condemning the \u201cforgotten genocide\u201d which is taking place in the East of the country, Pope Francis said \u201cWe need to know what is going on here, that the peace processes which I fully encourage, are supported by actions, and commitments are kept.\u201d.<\/p>\n The DRC is an \u201cimmense country full of life\u201d yet continues to be \u201ctormented by war\u201d suffering conflict and forced migration within its borders\u201d and from \u201cterrible forms of exploitation, unworthy of man and creation\u201d. He warned against those who seek to \u201ckeep the country in violence in order to exploit it and do shameful business\u201d, which only leads to \u201cdeath and misery\u201d. DRC battles, said the Pope, to retain its territorial integrity against attempts to break up the country.<\/p>\n Pope Francis said it was \u201ctragic\u201d that the African continent still suffers from various forms of exploitation. \u201cEconomic colonialism has followed political colonialism\u201d. DRC has been \u201camply plundered\u201d and has not been able to profit enough from its immense resources. \u201cGet 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\u201d, he continued, adding that DRC and Africa deserves to be \u201crespected and listened to\u201d, become more valued internationally, and \u201chave more weight and representation amongst nations\u201d.<\/p>\n The President applauded the Catholic Church for its long-standing work to provide education and health services in DRC. Although the DRC is constitutionally a secular state, the President said that the lives of Congolese people remain deeply linked to religious convictions, and the lives of families are based largely on religious values, hospitality being a core trait. \u00a0Approximately 45 million, or fifty-two per cent of the population of DRC is Catholic. Pope Francis continues his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo today, Wednesday, with the celebration of the Holy Mass at Ndola airport, where up to one million Congolese are expected to attend.<\/p>\n Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Presidency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/i><\/p>\n Press Contact:<\/strong> Source<\/a> Pope Francis arrived yesterday in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo today, for a four-day visit as a \u201cpilgrim of reconciliation and peace\u201d, seeking to bring comfort and hope to a bruised population. Download document 1: https:\/\/bit.ly\/3Yhb5hw Download document 2. https:\/\/bit.ly\/3XUcISN Download document 3. https:\/\/bit.ly\/3Rvxxl1 Speaking to an audience of political, religious and civil leaders, Felix […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":121954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/64d3c718d634d4f\/600\/418","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,8692,4696,7610,4554,6404,281,4691,450,279,280,11177,19220,318,257,6579,5935,254],"class_list":["post-121953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-arrives","tag-central-africa","tag-condemns","tag-congo","tag-democratic","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-forgotten","tag-francis","tag-genocide","tag-news","tag-pope","tag-republic","tag-south-africa-today"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/64d3c718d634d4f\/600\/418","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDownload document 2. https:\/\/bit.ly\/3XUcISN
\nDownload document 3. https:\/\/bit.ly\/3Rvxxl1<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nErik Nyindu
\nEmail:\u00a0erik.nyindu@presidence.cd<\/a>
\nTel. +243 977 902 821<\/p>\n
\n
South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"