“It causes indignation to know that the insecurity, violence and war that tragically affect so many people are disgracefully fueled not only by outside forces, but also from within, for the sake of pursuing private interests and advantage,” Francis said on Wednesday.
Earlier, during his homily, he urged “all of you in this country who call yourselves Christians but engage in violence” to put down their guns.
The pope arrived Wednesday morning at an airport field in Kinshasa, riding around in his popemobile and waving to a vast and swaying sea of onlookers, a turnout Francis has not seen in years. Some cheered him from the wings of planes. Long rows of children in white Communion dresses danced. Many wore shirts, hats and brilliant, flowing dresses bearing Francis’ face.
But even among the joyous crowd a recognition of the grisly situation in the east lingered.
“Many, many terrorists,” said Edouard Lobanga, 38. “They are killing the women, killing the children, killing the girls.”
Hours later, Francis came face to face with those who have lived through those horrific experiences. In the papal embassy, victims put machetes and knives that they said were similar to the ones used to murder their families on the floor near the pope.
Ladislas Kambale Kombi, 16, from Eringeti, recounted how men in fatigues hacked his father to death in front of him, putting his head in a basket, and how his brother too was murdered and armed men carried his mother away. “I can’t sleep at night,” he said, saying it was hard to understand the “almost animalistic brutality.”
Through a friend who spoke French, Bijoux Mukumbi Kamala, 17, from Goma, stood before the pope and recounted how rebels took her into a forest and offered her to their commander, who raped her multiple times a day “like an animal” for more than a year and a half before she could finally escape.
