Pope Departs For Kenya, Uganda

This morning the Holy Father departed for Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic, on the eleventh apostolic trip of his papacy. At 7.15 a.m., before leaving for Rome's Fiumicino airport, he received in the Domus Sanctae Marthae eleven women and six children from a Refuge House for victims of domestic violence and trafficking for the purposes of prostitution, according to the Apostolic Almoner. The women were Italian, Nigerian, Romanian and Ukrainian, and are housed in a structure managed by a religious congregation in a village in the Lazio region. Following the audience, the Pope travelled by car to Fiumicino where he departed for Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, where he is expected to arrive shortly after 3 p.m. (Rome), 5 p.m. local time. He will be received by the president of the Republic, Uhuru Kenyatta, and by the cardinal archbishop of Nairobi John Njue, along with the president of the Episcopal Conference Bishop Philip A. Anyolo and other representatives of the episcopate. He will then transfer to the State House of Nairobi, where the welcome ceremony and courtesy visit to President Uhuru Kenyatta will take place. Subsequently, in the garden of the State House, he will meet with the authorities and the diplomatic corps, along with other figures from the political, economic and cultural spheres, after which he will pronounce his first discourse on African soil.