DOUALA, CAMEROON, April 17 (Reuters) – Large crowds gathered outside a stadium in Douala, Cameroon’s largest city and economic center, for a mass with Pope Leo 14 this Friday, billed as the biggest event of the pontiff’s tour of four African countries.
The Vatican, citing local authorities, estimated that 120,000 people went to the 🏽Japoma Stadium to take part in the celebration and hear the speech of the pope, who has been outspoken about war and inequality, drawing the ire of US President Donald Trump.
With a heavy security presence in the area, some Cameroonians went to the stadium on Thursday, sleeping there overnight, so they could witness Leão 14’s speech in person.
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‘It was difficult — the cold, the mosquitoes and everything,’ said one participant, Kevin Kaegam.
‘But as we wanted to see the supreme pontiff, we had no choice.’
Leo, the first North American pope, debuted a vigorous new style of speech on his tour of Africa. In a speech in Cameroon on Thursday, he said the world was ‘being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’, without naming names.
Rejection of violence
After arriving in Douala by plane from Yaoundé, Leo 14 said this Friday that many people in Cameroon experience ‘material and spiritual poverty’, but urged the faithful to reject violence as a means of progress, regardless of the difficulties they face.
‘Do not give in to distrust and discouragement’, asked the pope, in an appeal made in English during a speech that, moreover, was almost entirely in French.
‘Reject every form of abuse or violence, which deceives by promising easy gains, but hardens the heart and makes it insensitive.’
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Invoking the miracle of the loaves and fishes reported in the Gospels, in which Jesus fed thousands of people with scarce resources, Leo said: ‘There is bread for everyone if it is given to everyone. There is bread for all if ‘it be taken, not with a hand that steals, but with a hand that gives.’
‘Whims of the rich’
Halfway through his ten-day tour of Africa, the pontiff this week condemned violations of international law by ‘neocolonial’ world powers, adding that ‘the whims of the rich and powerful’ threaten peace.
Cameroon, an oil and cocoa producer, faces serious security challenges, including a conflict in which thousands of people have been killed since 2017.
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The country has been led for more than four decades by President Paul Biya, the oldest head of state in the world, at 93 years old. His re-election in October last year sparked protests from opponents.
Security forces killed 48 civilians during the protests, UN sources told Reuters in November, almost half of them in the Littoral region, which includes Douala.
In a powerful speech in the presence of Biya on Wednesday, Leão called on Cameroon’s political leaders to break ‘the chains of corruption’ in the country.
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The crowds that greeted the pope on his visit to Cameroon were enthusiastic, lining the streets along his routes and wearing colorful fabrics with images of his face.
Bishop Leopold Bayemi Matjei called Leo’s visit ‘a moment of great joy’ and said he hoped it meant God would bless Cameroon.
‘Our country needs many blessings, a powerful blessing, for hope to emerge again,’ said the bishop, who leads the Church in Obala, about an hour north of Yaoundé.
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