Against a post-Paris backdrop of security concerns, Pope Francis this morning sets out on a five-day visit to Africa, travelling to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Right up until the last minute, there has been speculation the pope may have to cut short his trip because of violence and unrest in the Central African Republic.
Currently, the Central African Republic is embroiled in a civil war between the predominantly Muslim Séléka rebel coalition and Christian government forces, which means that, for arguably the first time, a pontiff will be travelling to an active war zone. French troop commanders in the country have acknowledged that it will be difficult to protect the pope.
Despite that, when asked about the visit last week, senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi argued that neither Pope Francis nor his senior advisers had contemplated a change of programme to this, his 11th overseas trip, saying: "I wouldn't say that the events in Paris have in any specific way changed the problems presented by the Central African Republic and by Africa in general. After all, in Africa we unfortunately have had to deal with violent situations long before the Paris attacks.
Refugee camp
“On the plane, on the way back from Brazil [in 2013], the pope said that he wanted to go to Asia and Africa. Well, he has already gone to Asia [ South Korea, Sri Lanka and the Philippines] . . . and now it is the turn of Africa. His Central African Republic programme remains unchanged, including a planned visit to a refugee camp, to the central Mosque of Koudoukou as well as the opening of the Holy Door in Bangui Cathedral.”
Fr Lombardi also confirmed that, despite the unrest in Bangui, capital of the diamond-rich Central African Republic, Pope Francis will travel around in an open-topped jeep rather than a bullet-proof pope mobile. The papal spokesman was also dismissive of speculation that Pope Francis might be persuaded to wear a bullet-proof vest, saying: “That’s the first time I’ve heard that . . . and I don’t believe it for a minute.”
Inevitably, this visit will afford Pope Francis the opportunity to reinforce one of the major teachings of his pontificate, namely the Catholic Church’s preferential option for the poor. After all, the continent is wracked by many of the “global south” ills that he has regularly denounced – abject poverty, climate change and inter-religious tensions and violence.
Those considerations and the fact that Africa remains a growth area for Catholicism – in the last 30 years, the number of African Catholics has more than tripled to 200 million – mean that this first trip to Africa has huge significance for Francis. Which explains why the pope will most definitely take a sympathetic line with African Catholicism, a branch of the church that in recent years has emerged as an ever-more vocal advocate of conservative doctrine.
Some of the tensions between European and African Catholics, especially with regard to the pastoral approach to gays and divorcees, made themselves felt at last month’s Vatican Synod on the Family.
However, gay activists, hopeful that the pope may attack the draconian anti-gay laws of a country like Uganda, may be disappointed.
Ideological colonisation
African church leaders have long claimed that international organisations from the developed West use humanitarian aid to pressure African societies to change their traditional practices on sexuality and population control.
In his September speech to the United Nations, the pope himself denounced “ideological colonisation” or the “imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles which are alien to people’s identity”.
For all those reasons, Pope Francis travels to Africa, not as a pioneering agent of change, but rather as a champion of the poor and the downtrodden.