Pope Francis gives Mass in Congo at start of Africa tour - The Washington Post
Comment on this storyKINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — The schools were closed, and most work was called off, meaning all the chaotic roads in this megacity led only to one place on Wednesday: a domestic airport, with a temporary stage and then a vast field, where hundreds of thousands were arriving, some before sunrise.
Francis’s morning Mass, his first public event in a six-day trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and then South Sudan, was a glimpse into the extraordinary hustle that is necessary — even on days of celebration — in one of Africa’s fastest-growing and most mismanaged cities.Jobs are disproportionately situated in a sliver near the center, and given the spread of new slums — 10, 15 miles away — many Kinshasans spend hours per day in crammed vehicles, braving potholes, heat, fumes and shakedowns.An elite class lives in an area along the Congo River with embassies and international hotels, including one hosting the Vatican’s press delegation, where a club sandwich costs $29.Francis, who was forced to cancel a 2022 trip to Congo and South Sudan because of knee pain, arrived at the airport to roars on the back of a pickup truck retrofitted as a popemobile.His homily nodded again and again to the convulsions of violence in Congo’s east, where the government is battling rebels in a conflict imbued with ethnic tensions that also involves Rwanda.