Pope meets with Muslims in Central African Republic

Pope Francis made a historic visit to the last remaining Muslim neighborhood in Central African Republic’s capital on Monday, a move that nearly immediately opened up a part of the divided city that had been closed off for months because of retaliatory violence between Muslim and Christian militia fighters.

On 17 September 1995, Pope John Paul II celebrated a papal mass in South Africa as he began his six day tour of Africa.

Pope Francis left a simple black pair of Oxfords, while Moon provided two pairs of sneakers.

The Vatican leader shared that he is very pleased with his trip to Africa, and revealed that he prayed at a mosque in in Bangui, Central African Republic, riding around a Muslim neighborhood with the imam with him in the popemobile.

“Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters”, he said, his voice booming from an speaker to the crowd overflowing from the mosque. “It is not religious, it lacks God, it is idolatrous”, the Argentine pontiff told journalists on the plane back from the Central African Republic. One wonders what Moore and Co. will have to say about the comments of the pope. “We Catholics have some”, he said. It is not religious, God is lacking, it is idolatrous.

“It’s a good thing particularly now in this renewed era of evangelism that the Pope is coming to Africa”, Father Chiromba said. “Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history”, he said.

The Muslims who live on the grounds of Nary’s church may now venture out occasionally into town, though they always return at night because of the precarious security that still reigns, he said.

Although the Kyoto Protocol on climate change was adopted in 1997, he said, “little has been accomplished”.

“The question seems too small to me, it also seems like a partial question”, the pope replied. As he put it, “I don’t like getting into questions or reflections that are so technical when people die because they don’t have water or food or housing”.

Grilled on the eve of World AIDS Day about the Roman Catholic Church’s controversial opposition to condoms, the Argentine pontiff admitted the issue was “morally complicated for the Church”, but refused to be drawn into a debate. Francis said he has promised the patriarchs of Armenia that he would visit, no date has been discussed though.

‘We thought the whole world had abandoned us, but not him. When asked about the Vatileaks trial, Pope Francis claimed not to have “lost any sleep”. “And it will take time”, Rev Narv said. Peace and interfaith dialogue has been the central themes of the pope’s visit to Africa.

The pope confirmed that next year he planned to visit Mexico and hoped to be able to visit Armenia. The trip is expected in late February. On a trip to Cameroon and Angola in 2009, Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI was heavily criticised for refusing to budge on condom use.