{"id":16153,"date":"2016-07-07T06:38:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T06:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=16153"},"modified":"2016-07-07T06:38:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T06:38:35","slug":"central-african-republic-acn-helps-to-sustain-the-miracle-of-pope-francis-marta-petrosillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/07\/07\/central-african-republic-acn-helps-to-sustain-the-miracle-of-pope-francis-marta-petrosillo\/","title":{"rendered":"CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC ACN helps to sustain the \u201cmiracle of Pope Francis\u201d &#8211; Marta Petrosillo"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC &#8211;\u00a0ACN helps to sustain the \u201cmiracle of Pope Francis\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe tension may have eased, but it still remains beneath the surface\u201d, said Father Aurelio Gazzera to the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). He was describing the present situation in the Central African Republic, following the recent clashes that have occurred both in the capital Bangui and in the north of the country. Father Aurelio is a Carmelite missionary priest who has lived for over 20 years in the Central African Republic and who is currently stationed in Bozoum, acting as the director of Caritas in the diocese of Bouar, in the west of the country.<\/p>\n<p>On 11 June some members of the Seleka rebel coalition acted as an escort to some local people who were driving cattle, probably stolen, towards the frontier with Cameroon. When they reached a roadblock close to the small town of Ngaoundaye, the police and some members of the anti-Balaka militia ordered the Seleka fighters to lay down their arms. The result was a gunfight, and in the hours and days that followed, some of the rebels attacked Ngaoundaye in order to \u201ctake revenge\u201d, as Father Aurelio explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe inhabitants immediately took refuge in the local mission, run by the Capuchin Fathers\u201d, which was also soon afterwards \u201cvisited\u201d by members of the Seleka, \u201cwho however limited themselves to robbing a few things and threatening both the friars and the local people, without being too violent\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n<p>In the capital, Bangui, the scene of the clashes was once again the now notorious Muslim quarter known as KM5, or PK5. \u201cSome gangs of Muslims had taken refuge in the quarter, probably protected by the inhabitants of this Muslim enclave, in which no one else dares enter and in which both the police and the UN troops, the Blue Helmets, frequently come off worse.\u201d The gangs had pulled back into the PK5 quarter, following the arrest of some of their members a few days earlier. At the same time, in order to force the authorities to release their comrades, they kidnapped six police officers. \u201cIt is really a serious matter that members of the police force should have been kidnapped in the capital of the country\u201d, Father Aurelio commented. \u201cIt confirms the extreme weakness of the government.\u201d And although the authorities initially refused to negotiate, the fact that the police officers were freed again and that the trial of the members of this Muslim gang, which had been scheduled for last Saturday, never took place, leads one assume that the government gave in to the demands of the kidnappers.<\/p>\n<p>These were two incidents that were not specifically religious in nature, nonetheless they risk undermining the climate of peace and calm that have prevailed in Central Africa since the visit of the Pope there last November \u2013 to the extent that many, including the Archbishop of Bangui, Mgr Dieudonn\u00e9 Nzapalainga, have even spoken in recent months of the \u201cmiracle of Pope Francis\u201d. Now these new tensions could explode into new interreligious clashes, especially since, as Father Aurelio explains, \u201cfalse information is frequently put about on the Internet, claiming that Muslims have been killed or tortured \u2013 as though someone is trying to stoke the unrest\u201d. Meanwhile, the Seleka have begun to expand again and now control around 60% of the country.<\/p>\n<p>At such a critical moment it is more than ever essential to continue to promote interreligious dialogue, and it is for this reason that ACN \u2013 as part of its new international campaign, Be God\u2019s Mercy \u2013 is supporting the organisation of a meeting for dialogue and reconciliation in the capital, Bangui. It will involve around 650 people, including priests, religious and representatives of the various different communities. \u201cIt is an extremely important project\u201d, Father Aurelio told ACN, \u201cespecially now that there is the danger that people will go back to shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Marta Petrosillo<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo-4-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-16159\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo-4-1.jpg\" alt=\"photo-4\" width=\"338\" height=\"303\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo-5-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-16157 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo-5-1.jpg\" alt=\"photo-5\" width=\"346\" height=\"231\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC &#8211;\u00a0ACN helps to sustain the \u201cmiracle of Pope Francis\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe tension may have eased, but it still remains beneath the surface\u201d, said Father Aurelio Gazzera to the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). He was describing the present situation in the Central African Republic, following the recent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC ACN helps to sustain the \u201cmiracle of Pope Francis\u201d - Marta Petrosillo - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/07\/07\/central-african-republic-acn-helps-to-sustain-the-miracle-of-pope-francis-marta-petrosillo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC ACN helps to sustain the \u201cmiracle of Pope Francis\u201d - Marta Petrosillo - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC &#8211;\u00a0ACN helps to sustain the \u201cmiracle of Pope Francis\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe tension may have eased, but it still remains beneath the surface\u201d, said Father Aurelio Gazzera to the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). 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