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The Pope in the Central African Republic
I wasn’t sure I was qualified to write about this, seeing as I’m neither a Catholic nor do I know much about the Central African Republic, but I found myself so moved by the story that I thought I’d share it anyway.
In March 2013, President François Bozizé was ousted in a coup in March 2013 by a group of mostly Muslim rebels from the north, the Seleka. They targeted churches and Christian communities.
In December, Christian anti-Balaka militias overran the capital and waged a brutal campaign against the Muslim population, causing more than 400,000 people to flee their homes. Nearly half a million more fled to neighboring countries. The wave of violence has been notable for extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and endemic rape.
A peace agreement was signed in July 2014, but the violence has persisted, particularly outside of the capital.
After delivering the Mass in the capital of Bangui and attending an ecumenical event hosted by a Protestant Evangelical pastor, the Pope took the biggest security risk of his papacy, traveling to an active war zone to visit a mosque that’s been under siege from armed Christian militias in Bangui.
Under heavy UN and Vatican protection, Francis travelled in his open popemobile into the heart of PK5, where 15,000 Muslims are surrounded by Christian militias. Before the civil war erupted in March 2013, the Muslim population of the capital was about 122,000 but most have fled. Thousands of people gathered at the roadside, cheering as the papal entourage drove down red dirt roads. …
After removing his shoes on entering the Koudoukou mosque and bowing towards the holy Muslim city of Mecca, the pope told several hundred men inside that “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters”.
“Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself. God is peace. Salaam,” he added, using the Arabic word for peace.
Francis said his visit to CAR “would not be complete if it did not include this encounter with the Muslim community”.
The chief imam at the mosque, Tidiani Moussa Naibi, thanked Francis for his visit, which he said was “a symbol which we all understand”.
Some Muslims are living in the mosque after being forced out of their homes by the violence. “We are very proud to welcome him. The pope is not only for the Christians, he is a servant of God for all Central Africans,” said Ibrahim Paulin, a spokesman for the displaced.
Armed UN peacekeepers were positioned on the mosque’s minarets and a helicopter hovered overhead. At the edge of the district, armed Muslim rebels stood in front of wooden barricades, watching for any threat from Christian vigilante groups. …
A group of Muslim rebels joined thousands of people at the mass at the Barthelemy Boganda stadium. Two pickup trucks pulled up in the middle of the crowd shortly before the pope’s arrival and a group of Muslim vigilantes from PK5 leapt out, wearing T-shirts bearing the pope’s image, as people cheered and – referring to the conflict – shouted “it’s over”. …
I hope it is.
Published in General, Religion & Philosophy
This Pope certainly is a sign of contradiction at times.
As intended, it is a beautiful demonstration of Christian charity which may result in the conversion of many muslims to Christianity.
Unfortunately, it may also cause some Christians to reject their faith, either de facto or de jure.
He really is challenging to all those who view the faith as a political enterprise (right and left).
From the Holy Father’s address to the Muslim community at the Central Mosque of Koudoukou:
I’ll believe it is over when Islam can come to grips with reason and reform itself to believe that the acts of violence committed by Islamic adherents are not part of Islam and sharia and Islam can declare it so definitively. There is a long way to go.
Maybe this is a start? As a Catholic, during Advent, I wait in hope.
Hope. What a word. Sort of like potential.
I’m a sook, but I always love stuff like this. It’s like the Kanchi Shankaracharya saying that Hindus and Muslims in India should be like Ram and Lakshman.
For those who ask where the Muslim leader saying the same kind of thing is – I join you in your vigil.
Violence can be answered with violence, but then the violence grows and spreads. It can be answered with self-defense, which can limit its damage. Or it can be answered with love, and then it’s overcome.
I wish more conservatives would realize what a gift we have in this Pope.
The Pope has his heart in the right place but, it pains me to say it, ill-informed about many of the things he talks about. In this NY Times article about his African trip, note this sentence:
But economists agree that, at current birth rates, Africa is headed for a disaster. The real reasons for its poverty are corruption, lack of investment and high birth rates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/world/africa/pope-francis-africa-kenya-nairobi-slum.html
He has great personal courage, that’s for sure. The story goes that, when he was talking to the Alitalia people about flying into what’s clearly a war zone, and after making it perfectly clear that he was going there, no matter what, he said to the pilots, “if you don’t want to take me there, give me a parachute and I will parachute in.”
If there is one ting I succeed in my lifetime, I pray it is ending the heresy and fallacy that is Malthus and his descendants. Men have been preaching doomsday by over population for at least a millennium. They always seem to miss it and the reason is that humans are not creatures that only take (consume), they also give (produce). I doubt that Africa’s rising population will end it. Rather I see it as a great amount of potential for humanity. Many hopes, dreams, and motivation lie in all humanity, even in Africa.
If there is anything that is hampering Africa, its the the corruption of the state and its over arching power.
I have my intellectual disagreements with the Holy Father, but to his charity and pastoral ability to bring in everyone to the table, I have the utmost respect. He is definitely saintly when it comes to humanity, all of humanity. I am Roman Catholic, by the way, for those that didn’t know. Thanks for this post Claire. Pope Francis doesn’t always get a fair shake in conservative circles.
We can all hope but I am not all that confident about Islam to justify that hope.
Completely agree. The birthrate issue has been repeatedly disproved.
Sorry, but go look at the numbers and let’s talk again. What you are saying applies to an innovative industrial society, not to a place like Africa where there is not even much electricity.
He’s not ignorant, he just sees it differently than you do. He knows how closely tied “population concerns” in the west are to the eradication of the poor. The poor are not cherished as persons, but despised as a burden. See Margaret Sanger. [In a Freudian slip—probably because Claire is near—I first accidentally wrote “Margaret Thatcher”!]
Are you aware of how much foreign aid is tied to “reproductive health rights”, i.e. “abortion services” in desperately poor countries?
Abortion and dependency on foreign pharmaceutical companies are not the answer to African poverty. The Pope is entirely right to call the pressure to adopt them cultural imperialism.
I looked. I know they won’t have any apocalyptic issues in the future. Europe had high birthrates during the middle ages. So did the Romans as far as we know of them. Besides, many of these African nations with high birth rates are also experiencing civil wars that see many die, along with disease. Sounds like the rest of human history with much conflict and pain. I don’t like it but I doubt that Africa will capsize or undergo some massive Armageddon.
If anything, I bet we will see progress in Africa as those nations eventually mature and develop unified nations with the infrastructure and the means of supporting themselves and their expanding populations. Many men from Malthus to Bill Nye have preached doomsday and they fail each time. The obvious reason is our imperfection, we lack total account of intputs so we cannot actually give an accurate account of the outputs. We cannot see into the future clearly or distincly.
As usual, I think our Holy Father is admirable in spirit but foolish in manner. Rather than merely encourage peace and toleration, he affirms a false theology that has been at war with Christianity since its inception.
Bowing towards Mecca? Would he also light a prayer candle at a shrine to Krishna?
It’s shrinking from that challenge that is what may cause some Christians to reject their faith. In those cases, I have to wonder whether they really were faithful.
The Pope has shown little understanding of economics or of political economics. That’s not the same as being ignorant of faith.
His gesture in CAR may be lost, but that’s not an excuse for not attempting it. Neither is the absence of response from senior Islam leadership an excuse for not making the attempt.
Eric Hines
This isn’t about abortion but about contraception, gender equality and female literacy. Do you know how badly women are treated in those countries? You are projecting some Western issues on the African reality.
That’s a bit of a stretch. The Pope was showing solidarity with Muslims who are under siege by Christians. By bowing to Mecca he joins the persecuted in opposition to an aggressive attempt to convert by force. He is hardly endorsing Islam. He is, however, serving as a witness against killing based on faith. I’ve attended Protestant weddings and funerals. I am not thereby endorsing Protestant views, but merely showing respect and care. That is all the Holy Father was doing.
If your view is that everything will be fine without a decline in fertility, that is unimaginable when you look at the numbers. I have looked at UN and World Bank numbers. What numbers have you looked at?
It seems to me that you are projecting western values on a culture that sees the world in a vastly different way. In Humanae Vitae Pope Paul VI asserted that abortion would automatically flow from contraception. He was clearly correct. What is “gender equality,” but an attempt to re-work nature by force of law? As for female illiteracy–or illiteracy in general–Catholic schools are opening at huge rates. Catholicism is exploding in Africa while in Europe, with all its western values, the Church is in a death spiral. The African Bishops hold fast to orthodoxy because they have eyes to see the obvious.
What western values am I projecting? that a woman would prefer to be literate, and would as a result have fewer children?
It’s cute, those numbers were same ones that Paul Erhlich was quoting in the 1970s (his book was Population Bomb) about the human population overwhelming the world. Its not like we have a long and well recorded history of men literally producing more with less. Farming being perhaps the best example of this or desalinization with water. Humanity is not a suicidal species, we desire to thrive and we work towards such ends. That’s not to say that we explicitly say that but Africa is not inhabited by different humans.
Malthus had the same worries about Britain in the early 1800s when England was only just beginning its industrialization. He didn’t think that the nation could support the increasing population but Britain did. Just like Erhlich (who actually watched a dramatically larger increase in population), Malthus was wrong. Less humans is not the answer to problems, its probably the answer because as I said, we humans produce many things from more efficient means of producing to more efficient means of distribution. I am confident that many individuals working to their own benefit and others will solve the issue in free association with one another.
No need for contraception or some international dictate.
The actions of the Pope are laudable, but the cynic in me sneers that Islam’s ability to see the desirability of peace and tolerance seems dependent upon who’s neck lies stretched across the chopping block.
I am open to changing my view, but you still haven’t told me what numbers you looked at. Is it because you haven’t looked at any? I wrote about Ehrlich long ago. I read the PB. Have you?
When we see the bad in the world, we call it out. We desperately need to call out more of the good – this is a good. Pope Francis is not worried about timing, or threat, or photo ops, or political correctness – he sees the world through the eyes of Jesus and knows the windows of opportunity when he sees them. Thank you for this good story “Clara Binski”.
What makes you so sure it isn’t about abortion? You think the UN isn’t pushing abortion? You think the US isn’t pushing abortion? If so, you are the one, not the Pope, who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
What it’s definitely not about is gender equality and female literacy, both of which things the Pope fully supports.
And while you may think that foreign governments pushing abortion and birth control on third world women improves their social status, Catholics—including African Catholics—see it very differently.
That’s from a letter signed by 48 African bishops and 10 African Cardinals to protest the UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals.”
The Pope knows whereof he speaks.
Here’s my favorite quote from the Synod on the family last month. It’s by African Cardinal Robert Sarah (on Vatican watchers’ short list for next Pope):
What do these two “beasts” have in common? Abuse of women, contempt for life, and destruction of the family.
He didn’t affirm a false ideology. He made gestures of respect toward one of the great religions of the world. Remember JP II kissed a Koran.
Islam has a false ideological element, I agree. But it’s not reducible to that element. It’s the mode through which millions of human souls are connected to God, and that calls for some respect, especially from the Vicar of Christ, who comes in peace.
And I would have objected to that as well. A Catholic wouldn’t expect an atheist or Hindu to bow before the Eucharist. Attending and listening is justly respectful. Bowing to Mecca is pretense.
Islam is absolutely reducible to Mohammed, whom every Muslim regardless of interpretation or lineage holds up as the ultimate role model and their primary source of divine revelation. Mohammed was evidently a pedophile and a ruthless warlord who only preached tolerance when he needed to be the object of that tolerance.
I would wash the feet of a Muslim as my fellow man. I would wipe the backside of an elderly Muslim. My objection isn’t to loving Muslims or seeking peace with them. It is to pretending Islam and Christianity are at all equivalent in truth or respectability.
Republicans don’t feign respect of President Obama, Margaret Sanger, or Che Guevara to be neighborly with Democrats. Why must Christians feign respect for a “prophet” who would have enslaved or slaughtered us all?
Do even our bishops pray for conversion anymore?
Hang on a sec. Who said anything about equivalent?!
And why should a bow be interpreted as a pretense? Why not just a gesture—a gesture perfectly consistent with the teaching of the Catechism and the example of his predecessors?
No need to get personal. “Reduction of the African population” is not a risk. The lowest projections see an additional 1 billion Africans by 2050.