Throughout Africa, popes have cultivated the faith of a young Church and also managed to plant hope.
Paul VI was the first modern pontiff who visited the continent. It was in 1969, when he traveled to Uganda. That is why it's impossible to forget the message he left. He said it was time for Africans themselves to take up role and be Christian witnesses, after various missionaries had evangelized the continent.
The imprint John Paul II left years later was also indelible. He visited Africa 16 times. One of his most memorable meetings is this one with Nelson Mandela in 1995.
He also had various encounters with the sick. Africa literally shook with joy at seeing such a pontiff.
Benedict XVI confidently spoke in his two visits to the continent. He denounced what Pope Francis later titled the 'ideological colonization' in Africa. Above all, the current pope emeritus sent a message of encouragement.
BENEDICT XVI
Waiting against all hope. Isn't it a magnificent definition of the Christian? Africa is called to hope through you and in you.
Pope Francis' trip in September will mark the fourth of his pontificate to this continent.
In 2015, he visited Uganda, Kenya and the Central African Republic. The trip to the latter country was discouraged for security reasons. However Pope Francis insisted. His passage through a refugee camp was an especially memorable moment.
POPE FRANCIS
We have to work and pray and do everything for peace. But peace without love, without friendship, without tolerance, without forgiveness, is not possible.
In the Central African Republic, the pope made a unique gesture. He inaugurated the Jubilee of Mercy that would later ignite throughout the Church. He wanted to begin it from one of the countries suffering most by war.
Pope Francis visited Egypt in 2017 and in 2019 he went to Morocco. They were two trips where he continued the work of his predecessors to improve relations with Islam.
Javier Romero
Melissa Butz
