The Pope’s Tour in Africa

Abstract

Pope Francis made a significant first visit to the African continent – between 25 and 30 November 2015 the Head of the Catholic Church toured in three Sub-Saharan African countries: Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic (CAR). This should not come as a surprise, as according to a Pew report from 2011, by the year 2050 those with the Catholic faith will continue growing in number: out of an estimated total of 2 billion people over 1.1 billion will comprise this category. So, Africa is the continent in which Catholicism has been spreading most dynamically. One of the pope’s missions was explicitly to ease religious tensions across the continent, in particular, in the conflict-ridden CAR. Another highly debated topic, which Pope Francis finally did not address, was Uganda’s harsh law/policy on the treatment of gays in everyday life. As the „pope of the poor”, however, the central issue was how to eradicate poverty and ease the gap between the very rich and the extremely poor in the world. The pope is firm in stating that every person has the “holy right” to demand the 3Ls, that is Land, Lodging, and Labour. With his tour Africa got another angle of global attention, which its countries should learn from and utilize wisely.