Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, is visiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan in the Pope’s place, following the Pope’s decision to postpone his apostolic journey there at the advice of his doctors.
Newsroom (04/07/2022 11:28 AM Gaudium Press) The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, leaves for Africa on Friday to represent Pope Francis, who is not able to make an Apostolic Journey previously scheduled for early July. The Cardinal notes that as soon as conditions permit, the Pope himself will make the trip to visit them.
“It is an important trip, I feel truly honored to be able to go to both the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan and to bring to those peoples the Pope’s affection, together with the assurance that as soon as conditions permit, especially from the point of view of health, he himself will make this trip.”
“The main purpose [of the trip] is to preside over two Masses to be held on July 3 in Kinshasa and July 7 in Juba, respectively. Other meetings have been organized around this main aim by the nuncios who have taken advantage of the presence of Secretary of State,” he said.
These include visits to the camps for displaced people in Bentiu and a center for disabled children in Usratuna in South Sudan.
“We will go to show the Pope’s solidarity to these people who are living in terrible conditions, I was told that the camp has been flooded for a long time…. There are different activities that involve various categories of people but always in this perspective of bringing them the presence, the affection, and the blessing of the Pope,” the Secretary of State stressed.
The Cardinal also reports his words with the Holy Father before his departure: “He told me that he was very happy that there was this possibility of me going to represent him, knowing that on the part of the population, after the first disappointment at the announcement of his inability to travel, a great expectation had taken over and there was never a lack of intense prayer for his health.”
The Pope, the Cardinal added, “confirmed me as the bearer of his affection, his message and his desire to travel as he had initially planned.”
(VIA Vatican News)
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh
