In 1988, the Vatican approved the Roman Missal for the Dioceses of Zaire (the Zaire Use).

Ahead of the Pope’s since postponed apostolic journey to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (as Zaire is now known), the Pope wrote a preface to the French translation of Sister Rita Mboshu Kongo’s “Le Pape François et le Missel Roman pour les dioceses du Zaïre” (“Pope Francis and the Roman Missal for Dioceses in Zaire”).

“In its triple fidelity to the faith and to the apostolic tradition, to the intimate nature of the Catholic liturgy itself, and finally to the religious genius and the African and Congolese cultural heritage, the Roman Missal for the Dioceses of Zaire is the only ‘inculturated’ Roman missal, born of the liturgical reform of Vatican II,” Pope Francis wrote in the preface.