By RFPosted on 08-09-2019Modified on 08-09-2019 at 13:46

Hundreds of thousands of faithful attended the Mass of Pope Francis this Sunday morning in Antananarivo, the Malagasy capital. At 10:00 am local time, the pontiff celebrated a service of nearly two hours, the culmination of his visit to Madagascar where he has been since Friday. It had been thirty years since a pope had not crossed the Malagasy soil. Nearly a thousand people have come to attend this historic mass.

It is in a calm and family atmosphere that this mass took place, on an immense site of approximately 60 hectares. In this crowded place, hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful braved the cold, the wind and the dust. This Sunday morning, some have made three days bush taxi to attend this mass.

One of the highlights of this office of Pope Francis was his homily during which he addressed several messages to the crowd.

He first spoke of unity and advised not to be reduced to belonging to a group that leads, according to him, clientelism and corruption, a scourge that knows the Big Island.

Another message from the pope, that of not using the name of God to justify acts of violence.

He also warned against individualism which, according to him, is one of the worst slavery. François advocated personal detachment to fight against the deceptive security of power and money.

" Let's look around us. How many men, women and young children suffer and are deprived of everything? He told the crowd, Malagasy who know very well what he is talking about since three quarters of them live on less than two dollars a day.

A homily that touched many of the faithful interviewed on the spot because according to them, it fits perfectly with the realities and the problems that the population meets.

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