Fridolin Ambongo on Kinshasa at the opening of the 2026-2027 pastoral year: « our city has become an enormous garbage dump »

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa, raised alarm about the city’s environmental decline during the opening mass of the 2026-2027 pastoral year at Notre-Dame du Congo Cathedral. He highlighted issues such as waste accumulation, plastic proliferation, loss of green spaces, blocked drains and rivers, recurrent floods, and related health problems. The Church aims to dedicate this year to ecological conversion and collective responsibility, inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’.