![]() ![]() “There is no room for further delay,” he said, adding that “great numbers of children born in recent years have only known the reality of camps for displaced persons.”įaithful wait at Ndolo airport where Pope Francis will preside over the Holy Mass in Kinshasa, Congo, Wednesday Feb. “The future cannot lie in refugee camps,” the pontiff said Saturday. South Sudan has been in a civil war since 2013, and a 2018 peace agreement has yet to be fully implemented. The war has led to more than 4 million South Sudanese people – 65% of them aged under 18 – either fleeing the country or being internally displaced, according to the UNHCR. Francis’ trip to the DRC – the first papal visit since 1985 – came as the African nation is beset by armed fighting and a worsening refugee crisis. The pope’s visit to South Sudan came days after the 86-year-old held Mass for 1 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), another country grappling with poverty and strife. “There is no room for delay,” Francis said to applause. His words echoed his message to the country’s leaders Friday evening when he criticized the “stagnant” peace process. “I want to renew my forceful and heartfelt appeal to end all conflict and to resume the peace process in a serious way,” the pope told the crowd gathered in the Freedom Hall. Pope Francis called for peace on Saturday as he met a group of several hundred South Sudanese people internally displaced by war at an event in the country’s capital Juba.
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