POPE FRANCIS IN KENYA: URGE KENYANS TO WORK FOR PEACE

Tens of thousands of people have been celebrating Mass with Pope Francis at a university campus in Kenya.

Pope Francis made a plea for traditional values, saying “the health of any society depends on the health of its families”.

The Pope earlier urged Kenyans to work for peace and reconciliation on his first trip as pontiff to Africa, amid a rise in militant violence.
He arrived in Kenya on Wednesday, the first stop on a three-nation tour.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and ululating crowds had welcomed him at the airport in Nairobi, the capital.

Crowds waited in the rain at the University of Nairobi sports ground since the early hours of Thursday morning. More than one million were expected to attend the Mass.

Pope Francis told them: “Our faith in God’s word calls us to support families in their mission in society, to accept children as a blessing for our world, and to defend the dignity of each man and woman, for all of us are brothers and sisters in the one human family.”

He also spoke about abortion and the need for a caring society: “We are also called to resist practices which foster arrogance in men, hurt or demean women, and threaten the life of the innocent unborn.”

Ahead of the Mass, Francis had been meeting with religious leaders, who he said should be “prophets of peace” in a violent and hate-driven world.

The Pope earlier said conflict and terrorism fed “on fear, mistrust, and the despair born of poverty and frustration”.

The pontiff has played down security fears about his trip, joking that he was “more worried about the mosquitoes.”