APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO AND SOUTH SUDAN (ECUMENICAL PEACE PILGRIMAGE TO SOUTH SUDAN)

Mr President, Honourable Members of Government and the Diplomatic Corps, Eminent Religious and Civil Authorities, Distinguished Representatives of Civil Society and the World of Culture, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I offer you a cordial greeting and I thank His Excellency the President for his kind words.  I am happy to be here in this beautiful, vast and luxuriant land, which embraces, to the north, the equatorial forest, in the centre and towards the south, plateaus and wooded savannas, to the ...

Bandeko, bobóto [Brothers and sisters, peace be with you]
R/ Bondeko [Fraternity]
Bondéko [Fraternity]
R/Esengo [Joy]
Esengo, joy: to see and encounter you is a great joy. I have very much looked forward to this moment; we had to wait for a new year! Thank you for being here!
The Gospel has just told us that the joy of the disciples on the evening of Easter was also great, and that this joy exploded “when they saw the Lord” (Jn 20:20). In this atmosphere of joy and wonder, the ...

Dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for your courage in offering these testimonies. We continue to be shocked to hear of the inhumane violence that you have seen with your eyes and personally experienced. We can only weep in silence, for we are left without words. Bunia, Beni-Butembo, Goma, Masisi, Rutshuru, Bukavu, Uvira: these are places that the international media hardly ever mention. In those places, and elsewhere, so many of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of our one human ...

Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet you with affection and thank you for your songs, your testimonies and for everything that you have told me, but especially for everything that you are doing! In this country, where the sound of violence is heard like the loud crash of a felled tree, you are the forest that quietly grows each day and makes the air clean and breathable. Naturally, a falling tree makes more noise, but God loves and blesses the generosity that silently sprouts and bears fruit, and ...

Thank you for your show of affection, your dancing and your testimonies! I am delighted to meet you face to face, to greet you and to bless you as your hands were lifted up to heaven in celebration.
Now I would like to ask you, for a little while, not to look at me but to look at your hands. Open the palms of your hands. Look at them closely. Dear friends, God has placed the gift of life, the future of society and the future of this great country in those hands of yours. Dear brother, dear ...

Dear brother priests, deacons and seminarians, Dear consecrated men and women, good evening and happy feast day!
I am happy to be with you today, on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, a day when we pray in a special way for consecrated life. Like Simeon, we all await the light of the Lord to brighten the darkness of our lives. Even more, we all desire to have the same experience that Simeon had in the Temple of Jerusalem: to hold Jesus in our arms. To hold him in our arms, so that we ...

Dear brother Bishops, good morning!
I am pleased to meet with you and I offer you my heartfelt gratitude for your warm welcome. I thank Archbishop Utembi Tapa for his kind words of greeting in your name. I am grateful for the way in which you courageously proclaim the consolation of the Lord, walking in the midst of your people and sharing their hardships and their hopes.
It has been a joy for me to spend these days in your country which, with its large forest, represents the “green heart” of ...

Mr President, Honourable Vice-Presidents, Honourable Members of Government and the Diplomatic Corps, Eminent Religious and Civil Authorities, Distinguished Representatives of Civil Society and the World of Culture, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you, Mr President, for your kind words. I am pleased to be in this country, which has a special place in my heart. I am grateful to you, Mr President, for your welcome, and I offer a cordial greeting to each of you, and through you, to all the men and ...

Dear brother Bishops, priests and deacons, Dear consecrated brothers and sisters, Dear seminarians, novices and aspirants, good morning to all of you!
I have been looking forward to meeting you, and I want to thank the Lord for this occasion. I am grateful to Bishop Tombe Trille for his words of greeting and to all of you for your presence today and also for your greeting; some of you travelled for days to be here today! Several of our previous experiences have a special place in my heart: the ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good afternoon!
Thank you for your prayers, your testimonies and your singing! I have been thinking of you for a long time, with a growing desire to have this meeting, to see you face to face, to shake your hands and to embrace you. Now at last I am here, together with my brothers on this pilgrimage of peace, to express to you all my closeness, all my affection. I am here with you, and I suffer for you and with you.
Joseph, you asked a crucial question: “Why do we ...

Mr President, Distinguished Religious and Civil Authorities, Dear Brothers and Sisters,
From this beloved land, wracked by violence, many prayers have now been raised to heaven. Many different voices have united to form a single voice. Together, as God’s holy people, we have prayed for this people and its suffering. As Christians, prayer is the first and most important thing we are called to do in order to work for the good and to find the strength needed to persevere on our journey. To pray, ...

Today I would like to make my own the words that the Apostle Paul addressed to the community of Corinth in the second reading and repeat them here before you: “When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:1-2). Yes, Paul’s concern is also mine, as I gather here with you in the name of Jesus Christ, the God of love, the God who achieved peace ...