{"id":83,"date":"2015-11-25T17:24:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T17:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimission.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=83"},"modified":"2015-12-14T12:14:51","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T12:14:51","slug":"pope-francis-visit-to-central-african-republic-an-occasion-for-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/11\/25\/pope-francis-visit-to-central-african-republic-an-occasion-for-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis\u2019 Visit to Central African Republic: An Occasion for Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Comboni Missionaries\u2019 strong local involvement in the Central African Republic has seen them witness the ongoing political and ethnic conflict at first hand. Increasingly, the conflict is also deepening along religious divisions.<\/em><\/p>\n

To address these divisions, Pope Francis will visit the Central African Republic this week \u2013 his first visit into an active war zone. The Holy Father is set to visit a refugee camp, talk with government leaders, confer with bishops and evangelical communities, celebrate mass, and meet with the Muslim community at Koudoukou mosque in central Bangui. His visit comes weeks before the Central African Republic\u2019s scheduled national elections, which had previously been postponed due to the sustained violent conflict in the area.<\/p>\n

In advance of the Holy Father\u2019s visit, various religious leaders have united to share their hopes that it will mark an \u201coccasion to return to the path of peace\u201d. <\/em>Imam Omar Kobine Layama, president of the Islamic Council, said: \u201cThis will be a key event for all Central Africans, whatever their religious affiliations\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping the Holy Father will bring a clear message about the unity of believers, interfaith dialogue, human rights and peace, which could really liberate us and help rebuild social links the various armed groups have destroyed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Imam praised Pope Francis\u2019 interfaith engagement with the war-torn country: \u201cThe Holy Father has already done a great deal to help all Central Africans, whether they\u2019re Catholics, Muslims, Protestants or animists. This will be, first and foremost, an occasion for prayer. But it will also allow us to present\u00a0our Muslim community to the world, highlighting its anxieties and fears.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Muslim representatives were consulted during the planning process for the two-day visit and asked for recommendations regarding how the Pope\u2019s presence could best ease the crisis. According to Monsignor Cyriaque Gbate Doumalo, the Secretary General of the Central African Republic Bishops\u2019 Conference, \u201cThe Holy Father will speak to the hearts of both Christians and Muslims. We hope he\u2019ll find the right words and gestures to save our country and enable us to move forward\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

He added: \u201cPeople of all communities here are aware of the totality of tasks we face and very much need encouragement and hope. The conditions are right, and we count on them to respond appropriately at this important moment for testimony, forgiveness and reconciliation\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Catholic Church\u2019s nine dioceses make up a third of the 4.4 million inhabitants of the Central African Republic. The country has been in a transition phase since the outbreak of internal conflict in December 2012. According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, 2.7 million people are currently in need of aid in Central African Republic; 436,000 are internally displaced; and more than 460,000 people are living as refugees in neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Comboni Missionaries\u2019 strong local involvement in the Central African Republic has seen them witness the ongoing political and ethnic conflict at first hand. Increasingly, the conflict is also deepening along religious divisions. To address these divisions, Pope Francis will visit the Central African Republic this week \u2013 his first visit into an active war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}