Before leaving for Africa this morning, Pope Francis gave some words of encouragement to victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.
This morning the Holy Father departed for Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic, on the eleventh apostolic trip of his papacy. But at 7:15 a.m., before leaving for Rome’s Fiumicino airport, he received in the Domus Sanctae Marthae 11 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.
After a brief welcome ceremony in Kenya, the Holy Father was taken to the apostolic nunciature for the night. His intense, three-country visit concludes Monday.
