Flying over the Sahara, Pope Francis calls for prayers for migrants who died in the desert

And suddenly there was silence. On the plane that took him from Rome to Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pope Francis stood up despite the pain to pray. A few words spoken to honor the migrants who died in the Mediterranean.

“Right now, we are crossing the Sahara, have a thought, a silence, a prayer, for all those who are looking for a bit of well-being and freedom, and have not succeeded,” François asked journalists.

“So many suffering people, who arrive at the Mediterranean, and after crossing the desert, are locked up in camps, and suffer there, he continued. Let us pray for them. Designating the camps, he also used the German word läger, which he had already used in Greece about the open-air Libyan prisons where migrants are held.

Unusual invitation

This unusual invitation to prayer came on the papal flight, as Francis came, for about 30 minutes, to greet the journalists one by one. “It’s a beautiful trip, he also commented. I would have liked to go to Goma, but with the war, I couldn’t go there. An allusion to the situation of extreme violence in the east of the DRC, where he had to give up going, when he had planned to do so in July, before his trip was postponed for reasons health.

POPE IN AFRICA 🟠 Leaving tomorrow for Pope Francis, heading to Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, until February 5, 2023. A look back at the challenges of this trip, with our correspondent in Rome: Loup Besmond de Senneville.

The program: https://t.co/cCnDaeJfZ8https://t.co/PxVZk3FVXA

— The Cross (@LaCroix) January 30, 2023

In recent weeks, the tension has gone up a notch. The Congolese government explicitly accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, one of the rebel militias formed in 2012, involved in the violence in the east of the country.

Landing in Kinshasa at 3 p.m. for the first stage of his African trip which should also take him from Friday, February 3, to South Sudan, Pope Francis is to begin his fortieth apostolic trip to Africa, where he is not not returned since 2019.

A giant mass on Wednesday February 1

His first hours in the Congolese capital, Tuesday, January 31, the pope will devote to meeting the political leaders of the country. At the Presidential Palace, he will be welcomed by President Félix Tshisekedi, elected in 2019. In the country where the Catholic Church has been very involved in the political field since the 1960s, the Pope’s speech to the authorities will be closely scrutinized.

If François had to give up going to the eastern part of the country, he planned to meet, Wednesday, February 1, in the Congolese capital, victims of this civil war. He must also celebrate in this country one of the biggest masses of his pontificate: 1.5 million faithful are expected at Ndolo airport, near Kinshasa.

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