AFRICA/CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - Coadjutor of the Bishop of Bangassou: “With Pope Francis' visit, a positive change has been felt”

Bangui (Fides Agency) - “Pope Francis has always been very important for the Central African Republic,” Aurelio Gazzera, who has lived and worked as a Carmelite missionary in the Central African Republic for 34 years and is now coadjutor bishop of Bangassou, told Fides. “The beginning of his pontificate in 2013 coincided with one of the many wars that continue to afflict this country. His focus on Central Africa became clear with his visit in 2015. We were nearing the end of the war, but it did not lead to lasting peace. Pope Francis wanted to come here and open the first Holy Door of the Jubilee of Mercy in Bangui, the Central African capital. I remember it very well because I was in Bozoum, from where it was almost impossible to reach Bangui, 300 km away, in the previous months because the road was besieged by rebels who attacked convoys and individual vehicles. When the announcement of the Pope's visit came, we didn't believe it, and we didn't believe it almost until the end, because the situation was really very tense and there was a lot of fear.”
“I remember that Pope Francis was in Uganda or Kenya on the eve of his arrival in Central Africa, and French radio announced that the Central African stop of his trip had been canceled. We were in Bangui with many faithful, we had involved the various parishes, and I was accompanying a group of 50 people with whom we had traveled for a day and a night in a truck,” the missionary continues. “When the Pope actually arrived, we were in the Cathedral of Bangui to open the Holy Door. When the Pope announced that Bangui was the spiritual capital of the world and opened the Holy Door (a very simple wooden door), it was as if a fresh wind had blown in. This feeling was confirmed the next day when, before going to the stadium to celebrate Mass, Pope Francis visited a refugee camp and met with Muslims in a mosque in a neighborhood that had been inaccessible for more than a year, traveling in a very simple truck without any protection.
This was a slap in the face for the United Nations and the various countries that had advised against the Pope's visit until the very last moment.” “We were waiting for him in the stadium when we suddenly heard the crowd cheering,” Father Gazzera reports. We thought it was the Holy Father, but instead it was the Imam, the president of the Higher Islamic Council of the Central African Republic, who was working with Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the archbishop of Bangui, and Pastor Nicolas Guerekoyame, the president of the Central African Evangelical Alliance, in the platform of religious leaders for peace, who went alone to the stadium. When we saw how the people cheered, we realized that the climate had really changed.” “This was followed by Mass, which was attended by an extraordinary number of faithful. It was a very 'African' celebration, very beautiful and at the same time very simple. Finally, the moment when the Pope left the stadium was spectacular: people were celebrating everywhere. In a country at war, where you cannot travel or leave your home, seeing people in cars and on motorcycles honking their horns and waving flags was a sign that something has changed,” the missionary affirms.
In conclusion, the coadjutor bishop says: “Central Africa owes a great deal to Pope Francis: a cardinal, his visit in 2015, his constant attention to the poorest and most marginalized countries, ‘on the periphery,’ as he used to say. We are grateful to him, and for this we entrust him to the Lord.” (LM) (Fides Agency 2/5/2025)

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