Pope Francis has asked the Congolese to forgive those who have wounded them as he presided over a Mass attended by an estimated 1 million people in a country scarred by decades of bloodshed.
Many of the devout spent the night on the enormous airfields of the capital’s Ndolo airport, singing, dancing, and getting jazzed up for the pontiff’s first major event of his tour to Africa.
His is the country’s first papal visit since St. John Paul II’s in 1985.
When Francis began a slow lap around the airfields in his open-sided popemobile, the throng erupted, with some people running alongside or waving flags.
The crowd cheered again when the Argentine pope greeted them in Lingala, one of four national languages of Congo that is widely spoken in the capital, Kinshasa.
And they listened attentively as he urged them in his homily to open their hearts to forgiveness, citing the example of Christ who forgave those who betrayed him.
“He showed them his wounds because forgiveness is born from wounds,” Francis said. “It is born when our wounds do not leave scars of hatred but become the means by which we make room for others and accept their weaknesses. Our weakness becomes an opportunity, and forgiveness becomes the path to peace.”
Referring to the decades of violence, especially in Congo’s east that has forced millions to flee their homes, Francis stressed that forgiving doesn’t mean pretending that nothing bad has happened. But he said the act of forgiveness creates an “amnesty of the heart.”
“What great good it does us to cleanse our hearts of anger and remorse, of every trace of resentment and hostility!” he said.
The morning Mass was Francis’ first big event in Congo after he arrived Tuesday. In his opening speech to government authorities, he condemned the centuries-long plundering of Africa’s mineral and natural wealth by foreign powers.
