Francis to send Cardinal Parolin to South Sudan, DR Congo
The Vatican Secretary of State will visit the two African countries during the period when the pope's trip was originally scheduled
Pope Francis is to send the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, after having postponed his scheduled trip to the African countries due to medical reasons.
The Holy See Press Office announced on Monday June 27 that Francis has decided to send Cardinal Parolin to Kinshasa and Juba to show his closeness to the beloved peoples of the DRC and South Sudan.
Pope Francis was to visit Kinshasa and Goma in the DRC from July 2 to 5, before travelling to Juba, in South Sudan, from July 5 to 7.
However, the trip is postponed due Pope Francis’ intense knee pain from a torn ligament and at the insistence of his doctors.
That trip to the two countries would have entailed five plane journeys and three Masses, more than a dozen addresses, meeting with political officials and Church groups and visit to camps for displaced people.
Cardinal Parolin's visit will take place during the period when Pope Francis' trip was originally scheduled.
The pope will celebrate a special Mass for Italy's Congolese community on Sunday, 3 July, the same day in which he would have celebrated Mass in Kinshasa.
The pope has often expressed his closeness to the people of DRC, victims of violence, health issues, and political instability. But the centerpiece of his trip would have been to South Sudan, being the first pope to visit that country.
He had earlier "expressed the wish to ascertain the conditions for a possible visit to South Sudan," and wanted to make the trip as "a sign of closeness to the population and of encouragement for the peace process."
South Sudan formally became independent from Sudan on July 9, 2011, following a protracted war of independence.
More than half of the people in South Sudan are Christian, while Sudan is predominantly Muslim.
However, soon afterwards, tensions between political factions led to a civil war fought often along ethnic lines and about 400,000 people have since been killed, and more than a third of the country's 12 million people displaced.