Young people from eastern Congo lay down the machetes and knives used to kill their families at the foot of Christ s cross to symbolize their forgiveness in a moving encounter with Pope Francis during his trip to the country Feb. 1, 2023. / Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, Feb 1, 2023 / 13:07 pm (CNA).In a moving encounter with Pope Francis, children from eastern Congo laid down the machetes and knives used to kill their families at the foot of Christ s cross to symbolize their forgiveness."I place before the cross of Christ the Victor the same knife as the one that killed all the members of my family," Léonie Matumaini from Mbau elementary school told the pope on Feb. 1.The child s heartbreaking witness on the pope s second day in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa served as a shocking reminder of the horrors taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo s conflict-ridden eastern region.It was one of several wrenching testimonies the pope heard during his encounter with victim
On his trip to Congo, Pope Francis has heard firsthand accounts of atrocities some people have endured during years of fighting in the eastern part of the country. A young
Pope Francis on Wednesday urged Congo s people to forgive those who committed "inhuman violence" against them, celebrating a Mass for 1 million people and then hearing first hand of the atrocities some of them have endured: a teenage girl "raped like an animal" for months; a young man who watched as his father was decapitated; a former sex slave who was forced into cannibalism.