Pope Francis was welcomed by the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni. The Pope praised Uganda for opening its arms to refugees and criticised “the globalization of a ‘throwaway culture’”.
Francis visited the Kangemi slum that is home to over 100,000 people and lacks services and a sewerage system. He said we cannot disregard “the dreadful injustice of urban exclusion. These are wounds inflicted by minorities who cling to power and wealth, commit ourselves to ensuring that every family has dignified housing, access to drinking water, a toilet, reliable sources of energy for lighting”
In his homily for Mass at Central Park opposite the University of Nairobi, Francis called on people “to resist practices which foster arrogance in men, hurt or demean women, and threaten the life of the innocent unborn”.
At his first meeting on the second day of his visit to Africa, Francis met on Thursday, November 26, with leaders of other Christian denominations and other faiths, driving home the fact that the name of God “must never be used to justify hatred and violence”. Inter-religious dialogue “is not a luxury” it is “essential”, he explained.
“Violence and terrorism feed on the desperation that comes from poverty”
“Experience shows that violence, conflict and terrorism feed on fear, mistrust, and the despair born of poverty and frustration.” Francis said this in his first speech in Kenya, in which he addressed President Uhruru Kenyatta and the country’s authorities gathered under a big marquee in Nairobi’s State House garden.
While Mass-attendance rates have steeply declined over the last 30 years, today France is witnessing the rise of an increasingly self-confident—and dynamically orthodox—Catholicism.
The Pope's African trip to start on Wednesday, November 25,, will take him to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic. His visit is to centre around dialogue between faiths, reconciliation, the fight against poverty and exclusion
The Pope's presence and gestures go hand in hand with his verbal message. But his physical presence in Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic during his visit to Africa which begins tomorrow and ends Monday, is far more important than the words he will pronounce.
The Archbishop of Manila, who today began preaching the spiritual exercises for Rome’s priests, told Vatican Radio: “Every act of violence shows a lack of mercy”
“Every act of violence shows a lack of mercy. This is the mystery that makes us all silent in the face of violence,” said Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle in an interview with Vatican Radio about the attacks of recent weeks. From today until Friday, Tagle will be preaching the spiritual exercises for Rome’s priests, on the theme “God of Mercy”.
The Pope has sent video messages to the people of Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic ahead of his apostolic visit on Wednesday, November 25.
Among religious communities, among the northern communities scarred by war, in the family: Being able to live alongside one another in peace is the main concern faced by the second country the Pope is due to visit on his African tour.
