On October 18, 2019, there was a thanksgiving Mass in Saint Augustine Church in Yamoussoukro in memory of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. It was officiated by Monsignor Alexis Touably. The latter wished that “the founder of modern Côte d’Ivoire” and his “immense work” be permanently in the spirit of the people of Côte d’Ivoire to whom he always advised to make peace their second religion. “Let us not speak of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny in the past tense, for a man of such greatness of soul can neither be of the past nor outdated. It is up to us to walk together on the paths he has traced out for us as the founding father of our nation,” he advised. He also stressed that “it is true that peace is a gift from God, but peace will not come to us from Heaven as a finished product, for peace is like a loincloth that we must weave together”.
