• Mozambique, the Pope to young people: "Do not let yourselves be robbed of joy"
  • The Pope in Africa visits Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius
  • The Pope in Mozambique: you have the right to peace

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06 September 2019 "It is not hatred and violence that has the last word". Pope Francis landed in the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo. To welcome him many posters scattered throughout the city, with the words "Tonga soa", welcome. The second stage of his peaceful itinerary, after having spent two days in Mozambique, will lead him to meet with religious, priests, seminarians and Jesuits. For the Holy Mass on Sunday, between 900,000 and 1 million people are expected from the former French colony, which became independent in 1960. Madagascar is a large reserve of flora and fauna, hosting 5% of its world heritage and about half of its 26 million inhabitants are Christian, divided more or less in fair numbers between Catholics and Protestants.



During his travel week, Pope Francis has a visit to three African countries under the equator. Pope Francis sent an invitation to all the peoples of Africa: "Do not stop working until there are children and adolescents without education, families without a home, workers without a job, peasants without a land. These are the bases of a future of hope ". On Wednesday afternoon he arrived in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, where he visited the anti-AIDS center of Sant'Egidio, presided over mass at the Zimpeto Stadium in Maputo in front of more than 60 thousand faithful, met many young people from the former colony Portuguese (up to 1975) and expressed closeness and solidarity to the victims of the cyclones Idai and Kenneth that between March and April caused 600 victims and more than 70 thousand displaced people, destroying entire areas of the country and causing a serious health emergency.



"Mozambique is a blessed nation, and you - the authorities of the country - are invited to take care of this blessing." For one month the country has signed a historic peace agreement and next October 15 it will go to the vote. On 6 August the President of the Republic Filipe Nyusi, of the socialist party Frelimo, put an end to tensions by signing an agreement with the opposition former guerrilla Renamo. The clashes continued even after the "treaties of Rome" of October 1992, signed for the end of the bloody civil war with the mediation of the Community of Sant'Egidio and the Italian government.

I invite everyone to join in my prayer so that God, Father of all, may consolidate throughout Africa, fraternal reconciliation, the only hope for a solid and lasting peace. # Apostolic Journey #Mozambique #Madagascar #Maurizio

- Pope Francis (@Pontifex) September 4, 2019



On Monday, then, Pope Francis will fly to the Indian Ocean for the last leg of his journey in southern Africa. A day will pass in Port Louis, capital of the Mauritius islands, a former British colony until 1968 and a country already visited by Pope Woityla in 1989. The island has no official state religion and Catholics are 28% of the population. A series of political, pastoral and interreligious meetings are planned. The family, the decline in vocations and the aging of the clergy are at the center of the concerns of Mauritian Catholics. In the capital the Pope will celebrate Mass at the Monument of Mary Queen of Peace. Tuesday 10 will return to Italy in the late afternoon.