Pope brings courage and hope to slum dwellers in Nairobi

Pope brings courage and hope to slum dwellers in Nairobi

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis began his last day today in Kenya with a visit to slum dwellers in the heart of Nairobi. Speaking to the inhabitants of Kangemi slum he reminded them the Lord never forgets them.

In a hard-hitting appeal he asked for social inclusion, education, protection for families – a response to what he called the consequences of new forms of colonization.

In Nairobi, Linda Bordoni reports

There are approximately 2.5 million slum dwellers in Nairobi representing 60% of the city’s population and occupying just 6% of the land.

One of the slums is called Kibera – it’s the biggest and most populated slum in the world.

But organizers have chosen to host Pope Francis’s visit is Kangemi. It’s known as “Nairobi’s friendly slum” because it is less dangerous – less harrowing in its desperate poverty – than some of the other 6 slums in the city.

The Pope’s visit to Kangemi was the first official event on this last day of his in Kenya. For him – I suspect – perhaps the most important and poignant as he has made walking with the poor a top priority of his pontificate right from the very beginning.

As Pope Francis’ pope-mobile bumped its way down the potholed dirt road taking him to the Church of St Joseph the Worker I couldn’t help but wonder whether he knows that that road has especially been improved for the occasion and that the other roads in the area are much worse. I am sure he does.

The Jesuit-led Church where parishioners and a selection of slum dwellers from all the other slums of the city spruced up to welcome him is small and simple. Just the kind of place I think Pope Francis feels at home in.

Speaking in his own Spanish, Pope Francis told those present they have a special place in his life, he said he knows their joys, their hopes and their sorrows: “How can I not denounce the injustices which you suffer?”

And although he was close and familiar in his attitude and unspoken body language, his words contained strong socio-political overtones as he talked of the dreadful injustice of urban exclusion and of the “wounds inflicted by minorities who cling to power and wealth, who selfishly squander while a growing majority is forced to flee to abandoned, filthy and run-down peripheries”.

As he always had since his arrival here in Kenya, the Pope visibly appreciated the beautiful singing and dancing put on for him. This is something observers keep commenting on at every occasion. What many don’t realize it’s part of life here. Much more than entertainment, this is how Africans across the continent communicate emotions, celebrate rites of passage, and help strengthen the bonds between communities and tribes.

But there was time for more as well: being together, holding hands, embracing children. And lots of hope.

 Hope that the government will continue to listen to the people and heed Pope Francis’ urgent call to give all families dignified housing, access to drinking water, a toilet, reliable streets, squares, schools, hospitals, areas for sport, recreation and art.

The basic services each person deserves on the basis of his or her infinite human dignity.

In Nairobi with Pope Francis, I’m Linda Bordoni

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