Holy Father, your witness has touched the heart of Africa. You have stood with the poor, embraced the suffering, and reminded the world that faith must be lived in love, justice, and mercy. You have walked where many fear to go calling for peace in war-torn lands, bridging divides among peoples, and urging the Church to be a home for all. Your words, "Who am I to judge?" reflect an openness that echoes our African wisdom: "A home is large enough for all God's children."
Pope Francis is a prophetic voice in a wounded world, a shepherd who embodies compassion, justice, and inclusivity. His leadership reflects the African spirit of Ubuntu (I am because we are), emphasizing community over exclusion, mercy over judgment, and solidarity with the marginalized. He speaks to the African soul because he understands suffering not as an abstract concept but as a lived reality walking with the poor, advocating for peace in conflict zones, and calling for a Church that listens before it speaks.
He is a bridge-builder, much like the African elders who mediate conflicts, seeking not division but reconciliation. His call for a synodal Church, one that walks together resonates deeply with African traditions of communal decision-making, where wisdom is not imposed from above but discerned in dialogue.
Above all, Pope Francis teaches us that to lead us to serve, and to serve is to love. His papacy is a testimony that faith must be courageous, mercy must be radical, and the Church must be a place where all feel at home.
May the Lord, who has guided your journey, grant you many more years of service. May you continue to inspire a Church that listens, walks together, and builds a world where Ubuntu, our shared humanity, flourishes.
(Story continues below)
May God grant him healing and a long life.
Sr. Kimathi is a member of the Congregation of Sisters For Christian Community (SFCC). She serves at PACTPAN as the Director of Programs.
From Uganda, Fr. Ambrose John Bwangatto writes:
Fr. Ambrose John Bwangatto. Credit: Radio Maria Uganda
Heal and get back to us Holy Father!
The world is following intently the health of the Holy Father Pope Francis who is admitted in hospital. Many Christians and people of God are praying that the Lord extends His healing hand to Pope Francis.
When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, there was an air of wonder about a pope coming from a country like Argentina. Some of us had never thought of such a thing happening. However, his approach, especially his first gestures in St. Peter’s square, when he asked the people of God to pray for him, and the bow he made asking for prayers, sent a strong message that the Pope would wish for a Church that journeys together, a Church that walks together, a Church that reflects her identity as a community of the people of God.
We have noticed this over time, especially when in 2021, the Pope opened the Synod on Synodality which became a very exciting moment for the whole Church. Here, in my Archdiocese of Kampala, many people expressed their joy and their hope when they participated in the synodal consultations from their small Christian communities, from their parishes and finally, at the Archdiocesan level. These people were saying, ‘we have never seen this kind of thing happening in our time’. However, Pope Francis, by calling on the Church to have this synodal outlook, is inviting the whole Church to go back to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Many theologians were saying that by calling for the synod on synodality, and inviting the whole Church to participate in it, the Pope is reconfiguring the ecclesiology and the ecclesio practice in the Church, which for some, it is still a struggle to grasp.
My understanding of Pope Francis is, he is a pope who is deeply rooted in the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council. This takes us back to the Second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians where St. Paul talks about the Church as the body. The understanding of the Church as the body has come to inform the theology and the practice of Pope Francis, knowing that in the Church, everybody, by virtue of one baptismal vocation, contributes to the mission of the Church. Everybody participates in the mission of the Church. This has brought a very strong understanding that nobody can sit complacent, thinking that he or she cannot contribute to the mission of the Church.
Pope Francis, for me, is a pope who wants to take us back to what the Church truly is and also continuing in the teachings of Pope Benedict who taught us that the Church always follows the hermeneutics of continuity, and never hermeneutics of rapture. The teachings of Pope Francis provide a continuity of what the Church has been teaching and practicing all along.
As the Pope is admitted in hospital, we are all offering our prayers, wishing him recovery. We are all praying that Pope Francis recovers so that we may continue to experience his teaching, and his experience in the Church. I pray for Pope Franci, first as the leader of the whole Catholic Church, and secondly as the teacher of the faith who has made each one of us realize his or her own baptismal vocation. May the Lord extend his healing hand on Pope Francis.
Holy Father, I pray for you. I pray and entrust you to God, the Lord who entrusted you with the petrine ministry to strengthen your brothers and your sisters in the Church. Heal and get back to us Holy Father so that we are able to live together, to witness together the love of God. Amen.
Fr. Bwangatto is a theologian, peace advocate, and expert on pastoral theology serving in Uganda’s Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala. He is Formator at St. Mbaaga Tuzinde's Gabba Major Seminary in Kampala and the Archdiocesan Pastoral Co-ordinator.
From Ghana, Dr. Nora Nonterah writes:
Dr. Norah Nonterah poses for a photo with Pope Francis. Credit: Dr. Norah Nonterah
Pope Francis, the kind of leader that our society needs today
Pope Francis is a servant of God, who believes that every human being created in the image and likeness of God deserves to live a life of dignity. He is a servant leader, a Christian faithful who is interested in living out the example of the triune God. Life of communion, relational and sharing.
This is evident in his desire to renew synodality as a distinctive aspect of the Church for mission. He could be described as a humanist who has centred his teaching, life, and ministry on the core values that Jesus Christ taught. From this background, he calls the Church to conversion through conversations, listening, dialogue, and encounters so as to build strong relationships for the shared responsibility towards the mission entrusted to it. This call for conversion is to be extended to all others for good ecumenical and interreligious relations for the well-being of all human beings.
This is the kind of leader that our society needs today. We pray for his recovery so that he can accompany this generation on the pivotal path of rediscovering our interconnectedness and building human fraternity in our world.
We wish him a speedy recovery.
Dr. Nonterah, one of the African delegates in the October 2023 Synod on Synodality assembly in Rome, is a lecturer at Kwame Nkurumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
From South Africa, Fr. Peter Knox writes:
Fr. Peter Knox poses for a photo with Pope Francis. Credit: PACTPAN
You are a good father to us, Pope Francis!
Thank you, Pope Francis, for helping us all to grow up. Like a good father, you have encouraged us to be more adult and to take responsibility for our own lives. No longer does the hierarchy tell us to "Do this" or "Do that." Rather, as Pope, you are encouraging us to discern - to listen profoundly to the Spirit of God speaking to our spirits - to hear what God is hoping each of us will do, what will bring us deeper peace, happiness, joy, consolation, and a desire to serve, true to who we are and to our life's experiences.
You have shown us that in our synodal journey, the wider church has become more compassionate and united by listening to the experience of each one of us, to our joys and hopes, our griefs and anguish. This way, the church is growing in its knowledge and acceptance of all strands of humanity. We realise that we don't have all the answers, that we are all challenged and imperfect - even our most elevated leaders. None of us is in a position to judge the inner life of another. Like St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises, you have taught us that the spiritual leader does not impose his or her own views on the person whom she or he is accompanying. I am so grateful to you for the opportunity to minister to the People of God during your pontificate.
Fr. Peter Knox is a member of the Society of Jesus (SJ/Jesuit) serving at the Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a former dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Hekima University College, and former deputy principal of Hekima College. Fr. Peter has been an associate professor of systematic theology.
From Nigeria, Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi writes:
Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi poses for a photo with Pope Francis. Credit: Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi
May God bring you back to us in good health, Pope Francis!
On behalf of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa, I wish the Holy Father Pope Francis quick recovery. I wish that angels of God accompany him as he struggles, to restore him to full health of mind and body, to bring him back to us so that he continues the good work he is doing for Him, and for the Church, and for humanity.
Pope Francis has a very wonderful personality. All of us who have encountered him personally cannot forget the smile on his face, this look of confidence in his eyes, this attention he pays to whoever is standing before him. Pope Francis is a very wonderful person.
Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi is the Secretary General of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA).
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
Fr. Augustine Ikenna Anwuchie. Credit: Fr. Augustine Ikenna Anwuchie
