Nov 24, 2015 Father Federico Lombardi , spokesperson for the Vatican, recently confirmed that the Pope’s trip to the Central African will go ahead despite security fears.
Speaking at a news conference, Father Lombardi said:
“The Pope wants to go to Central Africa; the programme is confirmed with all its appointments in Central Africa, we are continuing to work on this. As every wise person would do we are monitoring the situation and we will see what happens, but we are still planning to go to Central Africa. I hope that we will find a good situation and that they say welcome. There’s nothing different to say, this is how it remains. And as we’ve said, we will be following the situation and we will take further decisions in case of necessity, if something particularly unexpected happens, but we are going ahead with the programme as written for Central Africa,”
Elsewhere, preparations are in top gear as Roman Catholic faithful in Kenya are also putting their house in order ahead of the papal visit.
A parish located in Kangemi will have the rare privilege of hosting Pope Francis during his 3 day visit to Kenya.
Father Marandu, the priest at St Joseph Catholic church in Kangemi, said:
“We are affirmed in our discipleship that we are part of the church, a significant part of the church, so significant that the Pope pays us a visit without caring what type of road we have, what type of hall we have and so on. That is something indeed.”
Philomena Mwaura, a professor of religious studies at Kenyatta University commented on the pontiff’s drive to shun discrimination.
“The Pope has been described as a liberal, some would describe him as a conservative but I would say he is more of a reformer and progressive. He does not really, he hasn’t – I wouldn’t say that he has gone contrary to the Christian teaching, he is also concerned about the integrity of marriage. The message that he preaches is one of mercy, one of love and concern for those who are victims, for those who are suffering. But I would not say that he is bringing about radical changes in doctrine or wishing to change the message of the Gospel,”