Pope Francis is heading to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, his fifth journey to Africa since being elected head of the Catholic Church in 2013.
The 86-year-old needed to postpone the journey final 12 months after struggling knee issues. However he was decided to undertake the go to, which can deliver to 10 the variety of African nations he has visited.
We check out earlier papal visits to the continent.
Pope Paul VI
1960: Uganda
Within the Nineteen Sixties, popes didn’t journey a lot outdoors Vatican Metropolis. Pope Paul VI bucked the development and have become the primary reigning pope to go to Africa.
It was a serious occasion when he visited Uganda in 1969. Amongst different actions, Paul VI made a pilgrimage to the Uganda Martyrs Shrine Namugongo. Throughout his go to, twenty-two Catholic martyrs had been canonised.
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II travelled extensively all through Africa throughout his greater than 26-year hold forth. His first tour was in 1980.
1980: The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast
Throughout his first African tour, he visited six nations in 11 days. On the time the Democratic Republic of the Congo was often known as Zaire and Burkina Faso was often known as Higher Volta.
In Ouagadougou, the capital of Higher Volta, he made an attraction for worldwide help for the nation because it suffered a devastating drought. The donations obtained set in place the foundations for the institution of the John Paul II Basis for the Sahel in 1984.
Throughout his journey, he reportedly criticised Marxism as an ideology and welcomed the spiritual enthusiasm he encountered.
On his final day, he additionally stated: “There’s a nice temptation to demolish as a substitute of constructing, to acquire weapons at an ideal worth for populations that want bread, to wish to seize energy – generally confronting one ethnic group with one other … whereas the poor sigh for peace, succumb to the need for revenue benefitting a privileged class.”
1982: Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea
John Paul II’s second tour occurred in February 1982, 9 months after an try on his life.
In Benin the place church-state relations had been rocky, he listened as President Matthieu Kerekou delivered a lecture on ‘the socialist battle’, in line with the UPI information company. He then celebrated mass for about 20,000 folks on the stadium in Cotonou.
After 5 days in 5 Nigerian cities, together with Lagos and Onitsha, the pope stated the go to left him with “‘an unforgettable reminiscence of a rustic which is a credit score to Africa, to the world and to the church of Jesus Christ”.
Within the northern metropolis of Kaduna, he referred to as for unity at a gathering of Muslim spiritual leaders, saying: “All of us, Christians and Muslims, reside below the solar of the one merciful God.”
He additionally
1985: Togo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Morocco
This third tour of Africa was in August 1985, and his twenty seventh journey outdoors Italy.
Throughout this tour, he devoted the most important church on the planet, the Basilica of Our Girl of Peace in Yamoussoukro, the capital of Ivory Coast. Throughout his go to to the nation 5 years earlier, he had blessed the muse stone as building started.
In a homily in Lome, the Togolese capital, he stated he wished to evangelise a religion that was ”authentically Christian and authentically African” in response to the matter of Catholicism adapting to conventional African practices.
He ended the tour with a plea to Muslims and Christians to place apart their variations and work collectively to create a greater world.
1988: Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique
Throughout this journey, Pope John Paul II arrived within the Kingdom of Lesotho earlier than a bloody shootout between police and gunmen who hijacked a busload of nuns and kids whereas demanding to see the pope.
The pope arrived in Lesotho eight hours not on time and simply 20 minutes earlier than the tense hostage drama was resolved. One hostage died and eleven others had been wounded however the others had been rescued.
Based on experiences, the spiritual chief condemned apartheid in South Africa throughout this journey – in Lesotho.
“A civilization of justice, peace and love imply recognition of the dignity of every human being,” he was quoted as saying. “It means every human being can train basic rights with out restrictions or limitations supposedly justified by racial segregation or by social discrimination.”
He additionally visited eSwatini, then nonetheless often known as Swaziland.
1989: Madagascar, Reunion, Zambia, Malawi
This was his fifth journey to Africa as a Pope and his forty first journey outdoors Italy.
Based on experiences, his curiosity in Africa was pushed largely by the speedy growth of the Church throughout these years. Vatican sources stated the church gained 2.5 million new adherents in Africa in 1989 alone.
There was additionally the beatification of Victoria Rasoamanarivo – a member of the Malagasy elite who inspired Catholica communities at a time when Christianity was outlawed within the nation – as a saint in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
1990: Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Ivory Coast
In 1990, John Paul II made two journeys to Africa. In January that 12 months, he went to Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad.
In September, he travelled to Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Ivory Coast.
In Tanzania, the place a million of its 24 million folks had been dwelling with AIDS, the pope careworn the necessity for a ”supreme effort of cooperation amongst governments in addition to the scientific and medical communities”.
1992: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Angola
This was his eighth tour of Africa.
His go to to Angola coincided with the five hundredth anniversary of the approaching of Christianity to the Central African nation.
1993: Benin, Uganda, Sudan
Throughout his ninth tour to Africa, John Paul II stated the Vatican would strongly resist the imposition of Islamic legislation on Christians in Sudan.
“You completely can not impose this legislation on these of different faiths who’re Christian,” the 72-year-old Pope instructed reporters, in line with a report by the New York Occasions.
“The function of the church, the Holy See and the bishops is to remind leaders of Muslim nations that Islamic legislation will be utilized solely to the Muslim trustworthy,” he stated.
1995: Cameroon, South Africa, Kenya
Catholics in South Africa will lengthy keep in mind the historic go to by Pope John Paul II.
A longstanding opponent of apartheid, the pope refused a number of invites to go to South Africa. However this time, he was obtained by the late President Nelson Mandela, the nation’s first Black president, who praised his stand in opposition to apartheid.
“Right now my journey brings me to a brand new South Africa, a ‘rainbow nation,’ indicating the range of races, ethnic teams, languages and tradition which characterise it,” the pope stated.
1998: Nigeria
This was his final journey to sub-Saharan Africa on the age of 77.
Throughout his journey, he inspired human rights throughout the nation which was then below the authoritarian rule of the late Sani Abacha.
“Respect for each human individual, for his dignity and rights, should ever be the inspiration and tenet behind your efforts to extend democracy and strengthen the social cloth of your nation,” he stated in a mass in Abuja.
“The dignity of each human being, his inalienable basic rights, the inviolability of life, freedom and justice, the sense of solidarity and the rejection of discrimination: these have to be the constructing blocks of a brand new and higher Nigeria,” he added.
2000: Egypt
This journey was his first go to to the nation.
The pope was greeted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak with a handshake on the foot of the aircraft’s stairs as he stepped onto the tarmac at Cairo Worldwide Airport.
A band performed the processional from Verdi’s Aida, an opera related to Egypt, as Mubarak then escorted the pope, leaning on a strolling stick, to face earlier than the flags of Egypt and the Vatican.
“We by no means may have imagined that we’d have the pope below our roof,″ stated Samir Yassa, who designed the New Cathedral of Our Girl of Egypt the place the pope met with Orthodox and Coptic clergymen in a show of their shared roots. “A brother is returning to a land the place Christ walked.″
Pope Benedict XVI
2009: Cameroon, Angola
On Pope Benedict’s first journey to Africa, he urged Angolans, nonetheless recovering from almost three many years of civil battle of their oil-rich nation, to construct peace and understanding between peoples.
“Expensive Angolans, your land is ample, and your nation is mighty. Make use of those benefits to construct peace and understanding between peoples,” the pope stated.
“To this finish, I ask you: don’t yield to the legislation of the strongest! God has enabled human beings to fly, over and above their pure tendencies, on the wings of motive and religion.”
The Pope’s rejection of the usage of condoms within the struggle in opposition to HIV/AIDS sparked controversy throughout this journey.
2011: Benin
His final tour to Africa was a three-day go to to Benin at a time when the Catholic Church was rising quicker than on every other continent.
On the finish of 2011, the Catholic inhabitants worldwide reached 1.2 billion. Based on America Journal, there was a 4.1 p.c improve in Catholics in Africa, twice the change in Asia, the second fastest-growing Catholic inhabitants globally.
Pope Francis
2015: Kenya, Uganda and Central African Republic
The Argentine-born pontiff made his first journey to Africa in November 2015, with a six-day go to to Kenya, Uganda and Central African Republic (CAR).
He introduced with him a message of peace, social justice and dialogue with Islam on a visit that included a go to to a Nairobi slum and a mosque within the CAR capital Bangui.
In CAR, he urged warring elements to put down their weapons and hailed Africa as “the continent of hope”.
2017: Egypt
In April 2017, Pope Francis paid a two-day go to to Cairo in assist of the biggest Christian group within the Center East, the Coptic minority in Egypt, who’ve been topic to marginalisation and lethal assaults for years.
He additionally reached out to Islamic leaders, visiting Al Azhar, the centre of Sunni Muslim studying presided over by its grand imam, Ahmed al-Tayeb – considered one of Islam’s main spiritual authorities.
2019: Morocco
On the invitation of King Mohammed VI, Francis visited the North African nation of Morocco in March 2019.
His journey was marked by requires spiritual tolerance, freedom of faith and in addition respect for the rights of refugees and migrants.
He additionally warned the Christian trustworthy in opposition to attempting to transform others, preaching “no proselytism” forward of a mass for hundreds of Catholics in Rabat.
2019: Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius
In September 2019, the pope visited Mozambique and the Indian Ocean nations of Madagascar and Mauritius, once more calling for peace and social justice.
In Madagascar, 30 years after the final papal go to made by John Paul II, Francis made an impassioned plea for the environmental safety of the island identified for its immense variety of natural world.