{"id":327626,"date":"2015-10-09T04:00:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T02:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/hoping-for-peace-in-the-central-african-republic\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:01:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:01:36","slug":"hoping-for-peace-in-the-central-african-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/hoping-for-peace-in-the-central-african-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoping for peace in the Central African Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20101009-01\"<\/a>It is difficult to know the numbers \u2013 <\/strong>Misna <\/a>sources report 60 dead with 300 wounded \u2013 <\/strong>and describe the events in a country that has been sinking in political crisis since March 2013 when a group of rebels overthrew the president; and there have been further outbreak in recent days. \u201cThe socio-political situation has worsened,\u201d <\/strong>writes Genevi\u00e8ve Sanz\u00e9 from the Central African Republic. \u201cChristian families live between the house and the forest, so that they won\u2019t be discovered at home and lose their lives. One priest, who lives in the north where the situation is quite serious, is offering shelter to 12,000 refugees in his parish, who are taking refuge from projectiles that are being launched all around them. He doesn\u2019t know how he will care and find food for them. There is no more adminstrative , political or military authority in the region, and there is the constant danger of bombs in crowded areas.\u201d From the <\/strong>Focolare of Bangui<\/a> they write: \u201cWe were preparing <\/strong>to do something concrete to help promote the peace<\/a> that our country is so much in need of: a sport competition with mixed teams of Christians and Muslims; a march for reconcilliation comprised of all sorts of ethnic and religious groups; a concert by several musical groups, including our own to help sway public opinion towards the need for peace; continuing visits to refugees here in Bangui and in the prison. We invited our Muslim friends and friends from different Christian churches to take part in organising these and other events, and they enthusiastically accepted.\u201d \u201cThe first event had been planned for the 26th of September,<\/strong> but was not held because of a massacre that taken place here in Bangui on that day,\u201d recounts Berndadine who works at the Nunciature. \u201cIt all began with the discovery of the lifeless body of a young Muslim woman in a Christian area. But the murderer and the circumstances surrounding the death are still unknown. In the span of a few hours non-Muslim homes were attacked, and many people were killed.\u201d Death is everywhere, looting, destruction of houses, churches, schools, offices <\/strong>of international organisations and many displaced persons, including several from the Focolare community. Some have lost close relatives. They write: \u201cWe encourage each other to love, each one of us wherever we are, ready to die for our own people. Pray with us, for us and for everyone living in similar situations.\u201d The city has seemed dead for days. <\/strong>\u201cYou didn\u2019t go to work,\u201d wrote Bernardine. \u201cThe shops were closed, the only vehicles on the street were those of the United Nations and the French Military. The population organised a protest calling everyone to civil disobedience, demanding the restoration of the national military to protect the people. More people died during the manifestation and everything stopped. Things have improved a bit in recent days, we\u2019ve resumed some of our activities, although schools are still closed. We\u2019re in God\u2019s hands and we always believe in His love. Sooner or later there will even be peace in the Central African Republic.\u201d And this hope is supported by the upcoming visit of the Pope <\/strong>in late November. Fidelia<\/a>, from the focolare in Bangui, recounts: \u201cThe entire population, regardless of ethnic or religious group, joyfully awaits his coming. You can feel it in the air, that the people are expecting him as the bearer of hope. Everyone is preparing spiritually and materially in order to be disposed to welcome the graces that Pope Francis\u2019s visit will bring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the wish and the hope of the Focolare in a land that awaits a visit from Pope Francis in November, but in recent days has turned into a theatre of unprecedented chaos in the aftermath of a crisis that has dragged on since 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}