{"id":5759,"date":"2023-02-13T22:01:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T03:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/?p=5759"},"modified":"2023-02-13T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T03:12:11","slug":"pope-francis-visits-conflict-torn-dr-congo-and-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/2023\/02\/13\/pope-francis-visits-conflict-torn-dr-congo-and-south-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis Visits Conflict-Torn DR Congo and South Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Morano<\/strong>
\nInternational\/U.S. News Editor<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Pope Francis has recently travelled to the African nations of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, during which he strongly emphasized the need to stop the exploitation of these countries and Africa as a whole, while calling the world\u2019s attention to the poor in these areas.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pope Francis meets with DRC President Tshisekedi (Photo courtesy of CNN)<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 86-year-old pontiff landed in Congo\u2019s capital of Kinshasa on January 31, becoming the first pope to visit the country since 1985. His trip had originally been planned for last summer but was postponed due to knee problems. Thousands of people crowded the streets as his motorcade passed through the city with cheering and raising flags. He immediately made his points very clear in a speech at the national palace in Kinshasa, telling foreign powers to stop letting the \u201cpoison of their own greed\u201d rob Africa of its own natural resources. \u201cHands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa\u2026It is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered,\u201d he said. His visit to the country is also a message of the recognition of Congo and Africa\u2019s faith. The DRC is home to the largest number of Catholics in Africa, with roughly half of its 105 million population adhering to the faith, including thousands of priests, nuns, and seminarians.<\/p>\n

The pope\u2019s visit also draws attention to a series of clashes in the eastern parts of the country between government forces and a rebel group known as M23 that has displaced over 5 million people from the area. In a speech, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi echoed some of the pope\u2019s main points about forgetting about the country while also accusing neighboring Rwanda of helping the rebels, which they have repeatedly denied. Pope Francis was supposed to make a stop in the eastern city of Goma, but this was scrapped due to the fighting. A delegation from the city instead travelled to Kinshasa to meet with him.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Pope arriving in Juba, South Sudan (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His visit to South Sudan was just as big of an occasion. South Sudan is currently the world\u2019s newest country, having gained independence from Sudan in 2011. It experienced a civil war in 2013 and has a shaky peace today. Similar to the DRC, the South Sudanese people also feel a sense of being forgotten, as no Western leader has even made a trip to the country until Pope Francis made his visit to the capital of Juba. He also made it a point to shed light on the developing nation, by making sure people don\u2019t forget about this country like the Congo and appealing to the country\u2019s leaders to put an end to the continued violence. \u201cNo more bloodshed, no more conflicts, no more violence and recriminations about who is responsible for it,\u201d he said. \u201cLeave the time of war behind and let a time of peace dawn!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact Michael at michael.morano1@student.shu.edu<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has recently travelled to the African nations of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, during which he strongly emphasized the need to stop the exploitation of these countries and Africa as a whole, while calling the world\u2019s attention to the poor in these areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4540,"featured_media":5816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"no_sidebar_content_centered","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"no_sidebar","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,867],"tags":[1343,537,1348,562,97,1349],"class_list":["post-5759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-news","tag-1343","tag-africa","tag-congo","tag-february","tag-pope-francis","tag-south-sudan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4540"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5759"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5818,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759\/revisions\/5818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/stillmanexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}