Slums are wounds inflicted by weathy and elite: Pope

The Pope, making his first visit to the continent, has championed the plight of the poor both in public declarations and his own way of life, shunning the institutional perks of the Vatican. Even before he became Latin America’s first pope in 2013, he was known as “the slum bishop” because of his frequent visits to the shanty towns of Buenos Aires. Pope Francis has regularly returned to his concern about inequality and pov¬erty in his homilies and speeches.

On his last day in Kenya, the Pope visited Nairobi’s Kangemi district, a neighbourhood of potholed roads, open sewers and jerry-built shacks for homes, lying a few hundred metres from smart apartment blocks and gated residential compounds. Addressing huge crowds, he spoke of the “dreadful injustice of urban exclusion” represented in such poor areas.”These are wounds inflicted by minorities who cling to power and wealth, who selfishly squander while a growing majority is forced to flee to aban¬doned, filthy and run-down peripheries,” he said.

He criticised “faceless private developers who hoard areas of land and even attempt to appropriate the playgrounds of your schools” but he said communal values in poor districts showed there was an alternative culture to the “god of money.” The Pope also said one of biggest challenges was a lack of basic amenities.