Pope Francis next week heads to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, two countries grappling with conflict and profound poverty, in what will be his third visit to sub-Saharan Africa since he became pope in 2013.
For the South Sudan leg, the leader of the world's nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics will be joined by his Anglican counterpart, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the Church of Scotland Moderator -- an unprecedented joint foreign trip by the three religious leaders.Pope Francis was scheduled to visit the two countries in July 2022 but had to cancel because of a persistent knee ailment.
between Congolese troops and the M23 rebel group. That stop was eliminated from the programme for the coming trip because of a flare-up in unrest there.The pope will fly from Rome to Kinshasa on Tuesday, Jan. 31. After a welcome ceremony he will meet Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, then with Congolese authorities, civil society representatives and the diplomatic corps.
not to ignore decades-long conflicts that have ravaged the mineral-rich nation, wrecking millions of lives.in February 2021 of Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio, his bodyguard and their driver during a botched kidnapping on a road in eastern Congo as they were heading to visit a U.N. humanitarian project.The pope, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Church of Scotland Moderator Iain Greenshields land in Juba on Friday, Feb. 3.
On Sunday, the pope will celebrate Mass at the Garang mausoleum. After a farewell ceremony at the international airport in Juba, he will fly back to Rome along with Welby and Greenshields. They are expected to join the pope in his traditional airborne news conference on the return flight to the Italian capital.South Sudan broke away from Sudan to become independent in 2011 after decades of conflict, but civil war erupted in 2013.
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