• After a brief but vibrant welcome ceremony at the airport and a private colloquium with Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, Pope Francis immediately delivered a wide ranging and hard-hitting discourse to political and civil authorities and to members of the diplomatic corps, a discourse that – as Holy See Press Office Director Father Lombardi pointed out during the evening media briefing – was really a discourse to all the people of Kenya.

    It contained many of the themes that he is expected to address during this 6-day African journey. It featured his concern for the youth who represent the future and are – he said – the most valuable resource of the nation; it highlighted his belief that violence, conflict and terrorism feed on fear, mistrust, and the despair born of poverty and frustration; it voiced his appeal to men and women of goodwill and to political leaders to work for reconciliation, peace, forgiveness and healing; and – above all – it spoke of the grave environmental crisis facing our world and of the urgent need to take responsibility for creation and to exercise a just stewardship of the gifts we have received.

    Afterwards, as he travelled in an open pope-mobile to the Nairobi Nunciature to rest for the night, he was blessed by the opening of the African skies and a downpour fit for a Pope.

    His first appointment on Thursday morning was an ecumenical and interreligious meeting. It was a particularly important moment in a nation as multi-cultural as is Kenya and where different religious communities and religions play a pivotal role in shaping a peaceful, free and democratic society. To the leaders of different Christian confessions and other faiths he reiterated his firm belief that religions play an essential role in forming consciences, instilling profound spiritual values and training good citizens dedicated to the common good.

    He also recalled the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and reaffirmed the Church’s commitment to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue in the service of understanding and friendship.

    “As we look to the future,” Pope Francis concluded, “let us pray that all men and women will see themselves as brothers and sisters, peacefully united in and through our differences.”

    “Let us pray for peace!”

    Source: Vatican Radio