For the first papal visit to the DRC since 1985, Pope Francis touched down in Kinshasa on Tuesday afternoon.
The trip to the Continent includes a stop in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, one of the world’s poorest nations, on Friday.
According to Andreas Mabior, the choir’s leader, “We hope this visit is a great opportunity for the people of South Sudan to make amends, reunite, and rebuild their future as one people united.”
A Catholic nun named Sister Sarah Gune Justin continued, “(South Sudan, Ed.) We became powerless due to war, but with faith and trust in God we know that with the Holy Father’s visit to our nation, we will experience the peace of Christ and South Sudan will change, it won’t remain as it was.
The pontiff’s six-day trip to the DRC and South Sudan had been scheduled for July 2022, but it was postponed because of his knee pain, which has recently required him to use a wheelchair.
“Hopefully, his arrival will fulfill his wish for the South Sudanese people, which is “to be united, to be one,” as stated in his coming motto. Without any hesitation, this is inspiring South Sudanese people to unite as one “, said Matthew Remijio, bishop of the Wau Diocese in South Sudan.
South Sudan experienced a brutal five-year civil war after gaining independence in 2011, and ongoing hostilities between competing ethnic groups continue to wreak havoc on civilian populations.
On what he has dubbed “an ecumenical pilgrimage of peace,” the Pope will be joined in Juba by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the head of the Church of Scotland.
