Vatican official visits Ivory Coast to offer pope's encouragement

Published: 2007-05-24

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the people of Ivory Coast struggled to implement a peace agreement, Cardinal Renato Martino visited the country, taking Pope Benedict XVI's encouragement and material support. Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, visited the West African nation May 15-20 "at the request of the Holy Father," said a statement issued May 24 by his office. Celebrating Mass in St. Paul's Cathedral in Abidjan, "the cardinal encouraged the Ivorian people to continue on the path to peace and to promote national reconciliation," the statement said. In early March, President Laurent Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro signed an agreement to end the skirmishes and division that had plagued Ivory Coast after Soro led an attempted coup against Gbagbo in 2002. Under the agreement, Soro became prime minister, and militias supporting the president and Soro's rebels were to begin disarming. Cardinal Martino's office said Gbagbo and Soro attended the Mass he celebrated in the cathedral and embraced each other in front of the entire congregation during the sign of peace, setting off "a long applause from the entire assembly."

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