JUBA, South Sudan
Pope Francis made a final appeal for peace in South Sudan on Sunday as he celebrated Mass before tens of thousands of people to close out an unusual mission by Christian religious leaders to nudge forward the country’s recovery from civil war.
On the last day of his African
pilgrimage, Francis begged South Sudanese people to lay down their weapons and
forgive one another, presiding over Mass at the country’s monument to
independence hero John Garang before an estimated 100,000 people, including the
country’s political leadership.
“Even if our hearts bleed for
the wrongs we have suffered, let us refuse, once and for all, to repay evil
with evil,” Francis said. “Let us accept one another and love one another with
sincerity and generosity, as God loves us.”
His message aimed to revive hopes in the world’s youngest country, which gained independence from the majority Muslim Sudan in 2011 but has been beset by civil war and conflict.
President Salva Kiir, his
longtime rival Riek Machar and other opposition groups signed a peace agreement
in 2018, but the deal’s provisions, including the formation of a national
unified army, remain largely unimplemented and fighting has continued to flare.
“We have suffered a lot,” said
Natalima Andrea, a 66-year-old mother of seven who wiped a tear from her eye as
she waited for Francis’ Mass to begin. “We need a permanent peace now and I
hope these prayers would yield to lasting peace.”
The Vatican said more than 100,000 people attended the service, filling the field of the Garang Mausoleum and surrounding roads.
In a bid to spur the process
along, Francis was joined on the novel ecumenical peace mission by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of
Scotland, the Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields. The aim of the Catholic, Anglican and
Presbyterian leaders was to push
Kiir and Machar to recommit themselves to the 2018 deal.
Welby and Greenshields joined
Francis on the altar at Mass on Sunday and were to accompany him on the flight
back to Rome.
The three also aimed to put a global spotlight on the plight of the country, oil-rich and yet one of the world’s poorest, where humanitarian needs are soaring for the 2 million people who have been displaced by continued clashes and years of above-average flooding. Watchdogs’ allegations of corruption are also widespread; some South Sudanese upon the pope’s arrival noted that his modest vehicle was overshadowed by local officials’ luxury ones.
During the three-day visit,
Francis, Welby and Greenshields sought to draw attention to the plight of South
Sudan’s most vulnerable people, the women and children who have borne the brunt
of displacement and make up the majority of people living in temporary camps.
They raised in particular
the plight
of women in a country where sexual violence is rampant, child brides
are common and the maternal mortality rate is the highest in the world.
“If we look at South Sudan, I
would just use one word: South Sudan is a patriarchal country,” said Elizabeth
Nyibol Malou, a lecturer in economics at the Catholic University of South
Sudan. Citing cultural norms in which wealth is passed down to male heirs and
women are married young for dowries, she said it is a constant struggle to keep
girls in school.
Women in South Sudan, she said, “are tired. They are struggling. They are frustrated, and they’re stuck.”
Edmund Yakani, executive
director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, said the visit
of the three leaders was an important push to the peace process.
He called it a “critical
exposure of our political leaders towards their personal responsibility for
making peace and stability prevail in the country.” - AP
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