Pope Francis meets South Sudan ecumenical delegation
March 24, 2018 (VATICAN) – Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, on Friday received church representatives from South Sudan who updated him on the situation in the war-torn East African nation.
“We are here as an ecumenical body…we came as Christians to show that the body of Christ is bleeding,” Bishop Paride Tabani told Catholic News Agency (CNA).
“We would like that this Easter would also be a resurrection of people from their suffering,” he added.
Tabani, Bishop Emeritus of Torit in South Sudan, was part of a 9-person delegation from the Council of Churches of South Sudan (SSCC) who met the pope in a private March 23 audience at the Vatican.
Members of the delegation included bishops and leaders of different Christian denominations in South Sudan, including Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians, among others. They updated Pope Francis on several joint initiatives of the council to provide humanitarian aid and prompt international leaders to intervene in finding a solution to the conflict.
According to the Vatican News, a delegation of the ecumenical Sudan Council of Churches met with Pope Francis in the Vatican and later addressed the Rome-based Sant’Egidio community, which is currently engaged in peace negotiations in the country.
Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu in Uganda, who has been involved in mediating between South Sudan’s warring parties, said the Pope was very happy to meet with the ecumenical delegation:
“Working together as Christians is more important than stressing our differences,” Odama told Vatican News.
He also said neighbouring Uganda is playing a vital role in the region.
Uganda hosts over a million refugees who have fled South Sudan out of fear of being killed by fighters from either side of the conflict inside South Sudan, as well as out of hunger and lack of social services.
Odama said South Sudan is not only a neighbour but brother in need:
“When your brother’s house is burning you should feel concerned; even just to get some water and to pour it over the burning house is a good gesture. Therefore, receiving the refugees who are running, escaping from the war is a sign of our solidarity with South Sudan”, stressed the Archbishop.
Odama also praised the Pope for his recent call for prayers for peace for South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), saying the call was an appeal to humanity to take stock of the fact that one of its parts is suffering and to urge the world to take action together and ask God for a way to stop this war.
“As human being, we are one. If any part in any continent or in any country is suffering, then humanity is suffering” he further said.
(ST)