Pope Francis’ Delayed African Visit Muddies Hope For Peace-Building In DRC, South Sudan
HARARE, Zimbabwe — For South Sudanese Catholic priest Jean Musiitwa, the cancellation of Pope Francis’ visit to Africa came as a disappointment. The papal visit was a big opportunity to foster peace and reconciliation in a region increasingly grappling with internal conflicts.
Francis, largely seen as a peace maker in a world hobbled by crisis, hunger and conflict, has had previous visits to Iraq and has expressed willingness to visit Ukraine, which is in the midst of a devastating invasion by Russia.
While visiting Iraq in 2021, Francis met Grand Ayatolla Ali al-Sistani, a respected and influential Shiite Muslim leader, in a meeting that reflected his desire for religious unity and peaceful co-existence.
“Many people in South Sudan were eagerly waiting for the pope's visit, and the biggest expectation of the Catholic community is that the visit would have helped establish the church as a community driven by reconciliation, peace, forgiveness and unity,” Musiitwa of the Wau Diocese in South Sudan said.
His personal reaction to the cancellation of Francis’ visit was tinged with disappointment, although he remains hopeful. Francis has just been visiting Canada, a trip that has renewed hope that the pope may be in good health to reschedule the visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Musiitwa told ReligionUnplugged.com that he would have wanted to meet the pontificate, a highly regarded experience within Catholic ranks. Other Catholic faithful in South Sudan say they are still hopeful the pope’s visit will be back on the calendar soon, adding that they have awaited it far too long.
South Sudan is a much younger state, established in 2011 after separation from Sudan. The newest African country has hobbled from one crisis onto another since then, with civil unrest, hunger and a political crisis holding back the country from progress and development.
“I was disappointed because I thought that it was a missed opportunity in my life,” Musiitwa said. “Meeting a pope comes with its own blessing. Pope Francis was coming to South Sudan to encourage all of us who are working in a difficult environment that he is close to us.”
Although the trip has been postponed, Musiitwa and other Catholic faithful in South Sudan are still hopeful that the visit will happen. The Catholic Church in the African country is eagerly looking forward to the visit and had composed a song in honor of the pope, which it is still practicing.
South Sudan is battling a political crisis that has seen the warring parties fail to come up with a date for crucial elections. A humanitarian crisis has escalated for Africa's youngest nation, with aid agencies cutting relief supplies as cash flow dries out.
Catholic leaders in Africa have said Pope Francis' visit to South Sudan is long awaited and could help push the political players to a settlement. The wider Catholic community in Africa is in a state of frustration over Francis’ decision to cancel and postpone his planned visit to the crises-ravaged nations of Congo and South Sudan. However, the recent papal visit to Canada has provided some sense of hope that the long awaited visit will finally happen and help bring peace to the region.
In Canada, during his week-long visit, Francis sought to foster reconciliation for the residential school system abuses historically feted on Indigenous communities by the Catholic Church. Now, as the pope’s health remains the center of focus, there are growing expectations that the pope may also be in good shape to get on the plane and fly to Africa.
Jesuit priest and philosopher Christian Kombe said, “The feeling in both countries (Congo and South Sudan) was one of incredible frustration. Many Congolese and South Sudanese people had mobilized much, eagerly awaiting this visit.”
The long-awaited African visit — which was supposed to follow up on Francis’ visit to other African countries of Mozambique, Mauritius and Madagascar in 2020 — had been scheduled for July 2-7. However, after taking advice from his doctors, Francis has indefinitely postponed the visit. The pope has a nagging knee problem that has often committed him to a wheelchair.
The two African countries have been ravaged by civil unrest and internal battles for power. According to the U.N., as many as 5.9 million people have been internally displaced from Congo, “including 700,000 newly displaced people” this year.
The reasons for the displacement include internal conflicts in the Eastern Provinces as well as renewed tensions in the central southern regions. This comes as the government of President Felix Tshikedi continues to fight armed militias that Kinshasa says are backed by neighbor Rwanda, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries.
Together with a humanitarian situation that is worsening due to poverty, hunger and disease outbreaks, the internal conflict in Congo has been a strong case for a papal visit. Francis announced in a video message July 2 that he regretted “being forced to postpone this much-desired and long-awaited visit.”
He addressed Congo, saying the country was suffering from “exploitation, violence, and insecurity, particularly in the east of the country, where armed clashes continue, causing countless and dramatic sufferings, exacerbated by the indifference and self-interests of so many.”
There is even a feeling among some communities in Congo that the actual reason for the postponement of the pope’s visit is the unrest in the eastern parts of the country.
Catholic bishops under the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa — covering Burundi, Congo and Rwanda — spoke out against the violence and attacks in the Eastern parts of Congo.
They said in a statement released after a plenary session held in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital:
We are deeply concerned about the deterioration of the security situation at the borders of our three countries, and more particularly in the North-Eastern part of the DR Congo, with dramatic consequences: insecurity, loss of life, massive displacements of populations, outbursts of violence, destruction of infrastructures, incitement to hatred.
After postponing his trip to Africa, Pope Francis dispatched Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state to Congo and South Sudan on a reassurance quest.
“It is an important trip,” Parolin said. “I feel truly honored to be able to go to both the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan and to bring to those peoples the pope's affection, together with the assurance that as soon as conditions permit, especially from the point of view of health, he himself will make this trip.”
In Congo, Francis may also have to quell growing tensions between the Catholic Church and the state despite the signing of pacts between the two parties that allow for the recognition of the church’s role and existence in the Congolese society.
Last month, the Catholic Archdiocese of Kinshasa said a relative of the Congolese president had taken over land belonging to the church. The archbishop of the diocese, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, said this bordered on abuse of state power to intimidate the church into giving up its land.
"This land has belonged to the Archdiocese of Kinshasa since colonial times," media reports quoted Ambongo as saying.
Amid other crisis issues rocking Congo, the internal strife has persisted for the past 25 years, said Jesuit Father Rigobert. A papal visit to Congo will renew hope for peace through “challenging politicians and even the international community to come out of their hypocrisy in order to end the wars in this part” of the world.
“(Congo) has been in war for the last 25 years or so. The people are tired of calling for help; they found no help from whoever they went to in the past years. The pope seems to be their last recourse,” Rigobert said.
Tawanda Karombo is a journalist based in Zimbabwe, who specializes in sub-Saharan Africa covering politics, religion and finance. He has written for many publications, including Quartz and the National Catholic Reporter.