Bread of Life

Pope Leo calls Catholics to bring ‘Bread of Life’ to neighbors.

Holy Father celebrates Mass with 120,000 faithful in Cameroon.

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for more than 120,000 people in Cameroon's largest city on April 17, urging "beloved children of the African continent" to share God's love by feeding the hungry and offering the spiritual nourishment of "the bread of life."

Because of the large turnout, the Mass was held in a parking area next to Douala's Japoma Stadium under 90-degree heat. Catholics in the crowd told OSV News that they had spent the night outside to claim their spots for the Mass.

Remerit Ngwe, 28, waited 16 hours outside overnight for the papal Mass. "Since yesterday 7 p.m. we slept here on the stone waiting for the pope," she told OSV News. "We are so happy we finally saw the pope, Pope Leo, a once in a lifetime experience. Long live the pope!"

Speaking in both French and English during his homily, Pope Leo opened with a striking question to the Cameroonian congregation, "where is God in the face of people's hunger?"

He turned to the Gospel of John and its account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to respond.

"A serious problem was solved by blessing the little food that was present and sharing it with all who were hungry," Pope Leo said in French.

"There is bread for everyone if it is given to everyone. There is bread for everyone if it is taken, not with a hand that snatches away, but with a hand that gives," he underlined.

According to the World Food Programmed, 2.9 million people in Cameroon face food insecurity and need humanitarian assistance, with about 23% of the population living below the poverty line.

The Eucharist as Strength and Hope

The pope said the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes reveals a God who comes "to serve with love, not to dominate."

"It shows us not only how God provides humanity with the bread of life, but how we can share this sustenance with all men and women who, like ourselves, hunger for peace, freedom and justice. Each act of solidarity and forgiveness, every good effort, becomes a morsel of bread for humanity in need of care," he said.

"Yet this alone is not enough: 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," he emphasized.

Pope Leo said that this spiritual nourishment is "Christ himself, who always gives his Church abundant sustenance and strengthens us on our journey by giving us his Eucharistic Body."

"Sisters and brothers, the Eucharist that we are celebrating is the source of renewed faith, because Jesus becomes present among us."

"This very altar, around which we gather for the Eucharist, becomes a proclamation of hope amid the trials of history and the injustices we see around us," he added. The pope's message resonated with Cameroonians in the crowd. Ngwe said, "Being a Catholic Christian allows you to partake in the Eucharist, which is the highest celebration."

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