Pope Francis offers lesson in humility to flashy African leaders

In actions and words on his first tour of the world’s poorest continent, Pope Francis has sent a message to African leaders that they could do with less pomp and bit more humility.

In a region where presidents speed past slums in cavalcades of luxury vehicles and the public complain about corruption in high office, the Pope was cheered as he drove in a small Honda and told national leaders to act with integrity.

Kenya’s prolific Twitter users were quick to notice the contrast. “Thieving po-liticians arrive in their SUVs and Mercs to listen to @Pontifex who will arrive in a Honda. Shameless ‘leaders’,” wrote @Kunj_Shah.

Barely two hours after arriving in Nairobi on Wednesday, Pope Francis told the President and dignitaries they had a duty to care for the poor and support the aspirations of the young. “I encourage you to work with integrity and transparency for the common good, and to foster a spirit of solidarity at every level of society,” he said, speaking in the elegant surroundings of State House, the Kenyan President’s official residence.

Mr Kenyatta, a Catholic like 30 per cent of Kenya’s 45 million people, also spoke of the challenge of graft in his welcome to the Pope. “Your Holiness, like you, as a nation we want to combat the vices of corruption which sacrifice people and the environment in the pursuit of illegal profit,” Mr Kenyatta told Pope Francis. “Holy Father, I ask for your prayer as we fight this war.”

Pope Francis said on Th-ursday that dialogue betw-een religions in Africa was essential to teach young people that violence in God’s name was unjustified. Bridging divisions be-tween Muslims and Chris-tians is a main theme of his first tour of the continent that also takes him to Uganda, which like Kenya has seen a number of Islamist attacks.

Starting his first full day in the Kenyan capital, Pope Francis met Muslim and other religious leaders before saying an open-air Mass for tens of thousands of rain-drenched people who sang, danced and ululated as he arrived in an open popemobile. Inter-religious dialogue “is not something extra or optional, but essential,” he told them, stressing that God’s name “must never be used to justify hatred and violence.”