Pope John Paul II, visiting the Central...

Pope John Paul II, visiting the Central African Republic, made a strong plea for self-reliance. At an outdoor Mass on a vast field of brush and red clay, the pontiff noted the poor nation’s potential wealth. “God gave you earth and water,” he said. “He entrusted you with this fertile land so it could produce sufficiently for all and so the children of this country would never die of hunger or suffer from malnutrition.” Then, speaking of graft, which had been rampant under the former rule of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the Pope urged the country’s elite “to help, especially the most deprived, without accepting favoritism, intolerance among ethnic groups (or) corruption.”