Pope prays for Colombia, Goma, China’s Catholics

Pope Francis on Sunday prayed for protesters in Colombia, as well as people in eastern Congo facing the aftermath of a volcanic eruption.

Francis made the remarks in an address to a crowd that had gathered at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, for the pope's weekly Angelus prayer.

"I pray that the beloved people of Colombia understand how to accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that through a serious dialogue they can find just solutions to the multiple problems that they are suffering from," he said.

He urged "everyone to avoid, for humanitarian reasons, dangerous behaviour to the population as they exercise their right to peaceful protests."

Protests in Colombia began last month after President Ivan Duque attempted to ram through a tax increase amid a pandemic that has left millions without work or food.

Although he quickly backed down, protesters have remained on the streets, broadening their fight to include grievances ranging from the decrepit state of Colombia's health care and education systems to the slow implementation of a 2016 peace deal with Marxist rebels.

Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch say that the death toll since the protests began has risen to 55 and that in at least 15 cases the alleged aggressors were police.

Francis also prayed for the people of the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who were forced to flee their homes to escape the erupting Nyiragongo volcano.

Mount Nyiragongo erupted for the first time in nearly two decades on Saturday, turning the night sky a fiery red and sending lava onto a major highway.

The Pope also offered prayers for Christians in China.