Pope Pleads for Peace in S. Africa

Pope John Paul II expressed anguish Sunday over the recent bloody clashes in South Africa and pleaded for “an end without delay to all discrimination . . . to all violence destructive to mankind.”

The pontiff, traversing the West African nation of Cameroon from south to north during the fourth day of a 12-nation African pilgrimage, underlined his deep distress over rioting in the Indian Ocean port of Durban. He spoke of his concern during a huge outdoor Mass and instructed his spokesman to issue a more detailed statement.

“The Holy Father is very concerned over the tragic events that are developing in South Africa,” the statement from Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls said. “He profoundly deplores that the unjust situation is exasperating the different communities to the point of bloody confrontation almost every day.”

In direct remarks at the Mass for more than 100,000 worshipers in the capital of Yaounde, John Paul expressed grief for “the numerous victims of the new and bloody clashes which have taken place over the last few days in South Africa.”

‘End All Discrimination’

“May God take all these victims into his peace,” he said. “May he inspire all with wisdom, just behavior, respect for human dignity and the desire for peace, to put an end without delay to all discrimination that is not worthy of man, to all violence destructive to mankind.”

The Vatican statement said that “racial separation is inadmissible. Without the fundamental rights of man, which the Holy Father always defends, there is no dignity at all.”

It added that “the Holy Father appeals to all for an end to any kind of discrimination, for political freedom, freedom of thought and freedom of conscience.”

Here in Garoua, a city of about 85,000 not far from Cameroon’s northern borders with Chad and Nigeria and close to the famine-stricken Sahel region, the Pope extended his plea for tolerance, saluting both Muslims and animists who attended a three-hour papal Mass in a drenching rain.

“I express my esteem to all men and women who express their religious sentiment in the framework of the traditional religions of their ancestors,” he told the animists, whose spirit worship is often in conflict with Christian doctrine.

To them and the large number of Muslims who came to hear him, John Paul said that the church respects those who “go to God by other roads.”