Pope Francis to visit Africa Jan-Feb
According to the Vatican, Pope Francis will visit the African countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan from January 31 to February 5, 2023.
The visit, which was originally scheduled for early July 2022, was postponed by the Vatican due to issues with the Pope's knee.
The pope, 85, apologized in June for having to cancel the trip and promised to reschedule it "as soon as possible," according to the Catholic News Agency.
Francis will spend the first leg of his trip, January 31-February 3, in Kinshasa, Congo, before traveling to Juba, South Sudan, on February 3-5.
Meanwhile, an updated schedule released by the Vatican on December 1 revealed that the pope no longer intends to visit Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was part of the original trip itinerary, according to the report.
The logo and motto for the journey were unveiled in March 2022.
The Pope's visit to South Sudan will be a "pilgrimage of peace," accompanied by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Church of Scotland Moderator Iain Greenshields.
Pope Francis will be the first pope to visit South Sudan, which became the world's newest country on July 9, 2011, when it declared independence from the Republic of Sudan. According to the CNA, the country in east-central Africa has a population of 11 million people, 37% of whom are Catholic.
Pope Francis convened South Sudanese leaders at the Vatican in 2019 for a "spiritual retreat" aimed at resolving their differences.
In 2019, the Pope also celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for Congolese immigrants, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Congolese Catholic Chaplaincy of Rome.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a Central African country with a population of about 90 million people, roughly half of whom are Catholic. In 1980, Pope John Paul II visited the country, then known as Zaire.
After reluctantly canceling his own planned trip to Africa in July, Pope Francis substituted Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's second-highest-ranking official.
According to the CNA, the pope also celebrated a Mass for Rome's Congolese community in St. Peter's Basilica on July 3, the day before he was scheduled to offer Mass in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Leave A Comment