Pope at Mass in Douala: African youth must reject violence and corruption

By Devin Watkins

After flying to the southwestern Cameroonian city of Douala on Friday morning, Pope Leo XIV presided at Mass at the Japoma Stadium, joined by around 120,000 faithful.

In his homily, the Pope reflected on Jesus’ miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes for a great crowd.

Just as in Jesus’ time, he said, people hunger for bread and wonder: “Where is God in the face of people’s hunger?”

Pope Leo said Jesus offered his response to this question by sharing what he and those around him had with all.

“A serious problem was solved by blessing the little food that was present and sharing it with all who were hungry,” he said. “The multiplication of the loaves and the fish happened while sharing: that is the miracle!”

As long as bread is not stolen in strife, hoarded through rationing, or wasted by those who gorged themselves, there is food for everyone, said the Pope.

Besides our material necessity, we also hunger for the bread of life in peace, freedom, and justice, and our every act of solidarity and forgiveness becomes “a morsel of bread for humanity in need of care,” he added.

“Yet this alone is not enough,” said Pope Leo. “The food that sustains the body must be accompanied, with equal charity, by nourishment for the soul—a nourishment that sustains our conscience and steadies us in dark hours of fear and amid the shadows of suffering.”

Christ gives Himself to us in the Eucharist, sustaining the Church and strengthening us on our journey, he said.

The Pope encouraged Catholics to receive the Eucharist as a sign of God’s love, as the Father invites us in Christ to share what we have so that it may be multiplied in the Church’s care.

Pope Leo went on to recall that God knows all of our situations in life and all of our joys and sorrows, and he encouraged African young people to “multiply your talents through faith, perseverance, and friendship”.

“Be the first faces and hands that bring the bread of life to your neighbors, providing them with the food of wisdom and deliverance from all that does not nourish them, but rather obscures good desires and robs them of their dignity,” he urged.

Pope Leo delivers his homily at Mass in Douala   (@Vatican Media)

The Pope noted the richness of Cameroon’s natural resources, which stands in contrast to the material poverty many people face.

“Do not give in to distrust and discouragement,” he said. “Reject every form of abuse or violence, which deceives by promising easy gains but hardens the heart and makes it insensitive. Do not forget that your people are even richer than this land, for your treasure lies in your values: faith, family, hospitality, and work.”

Pope Leo invited African youth to follow the vocation that God sets out for them, so that they may be protagonists of their own future.

“Do not let yourselves be corrupted by temptations that waste your energies and do not serve the progress of society,” he said.

Concluding his homily, Pope Leo XIV invited all Christians to proclaim the Gospel of Christ’s liberation from sin and death.

“Proclaiming the Risen Jesus means leaving signs of justice in a suffering and oppressed land, signs of peace amid rivalry and corruption, signs of faith that free us from superstition and indifference.”