As the conclave prepares to elect a new pope, one church in Sierra Leone's capital is hoping an African candidate will prevail.
"If we have the next pope from Africa it will actually demonstrate the totality of our Christian faith,” Reverend Father Martin Peter Leo Bassei tells AFP after holding a Sunday mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Freetown.
"It will also help the others that are coming up, the other Africans...to know that nothing is impossible."