Sun 01 September 2019:
Pope Francis leaves on Wednesday for Africa, he will spend most of the Sept. 4-10 trip in Mozambique and Madagascar and briefly visit Mauritius at the end.
Fires in the Amazon have given new urgency to the pope’s calls to protect the environment, tackle climate change and promote sustainable development.
Aides say the trip, his second trip to sub-Saharan Africa, is a key opportunity to renew appeals enshrined in his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si” on environmental protection.
Rampant deforestation has plagued Mozambique and Madagascar. Deforestation, along with soil erosion, made Mozambique more vulnerable when two cyclones hit the country this year.
Catholicism in Africa grew by 238% between 1980 and 2015, according to the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. This continuing growth gives the Church increasing influence.
Francis makes an eight-hour stop in Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean that is rich compared Madagascar and Mozambique.
But anti-poverty campaigners say Mauritius’ tax treaties and financial services industry facilitates tax avoidance, draining desperately-needed revenues from poor countries.
Francis will pay tribute to Jacques-Dèsirè Laval, a 19th century French priest who helped former slaves on what was then a British colony.
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