Pope meeting renews hope of South Sudan visit

Pope Francis has met with Christian leaders in South Sudan in the Vatican last Friday raising hopes of a possible papal visit to the country.  

The Pope received the South Sudan Council of Churches last Friday to be given an update on the civil war, famine and the humanitarian crisis that has plagued the world’s youngest state.  

Despite the country’s problems, the churches have remained one of its few stable institutions with its leaders playing a central role in peace efforts. 

Francis has shown a special interest in South Sudan designating a day of prayer last month for it and the Democratic Republic of Congo while also expressing his wish to visit with the Archbishop of Canterbury. That plan was postponed due to security reasons, although the bishops still hope Francis will come. 

“We gave the situation of the Church in South Sudan, that the people are hungry for peace, and they expect the Pope to visit them,” the Bishop Emeritus of Tori, Paride Taban, a member of the delegation, told The Tablet after meeting Francis. “They said ‘tell the Pope to come, to help our leaders to help our country, we need peace.” 

The bishop added: “He [the Pope] encourages us not to fear. We are not to alone, he is with us, and he will surely come.”  

He was speaking in Rome at the headquarters of Sant’Egidio, a peace and humanitarian group that is trying to help peace efforts. The group played a crucial role in the 2015 papal visit to another war torn country, the Central African Republic, and was instrumental in the signing of the Mozambique peace accords in 1992.   

 Among those meeting Francis last Friday was Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu in Uganda, who has been mediating between the warring factions.

“Working together as Christians is more important than stressing our differences” he told Vatican News. 

“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”

Uganda has welcomed a million refugees who have fled South Sudan, while thousands of others have become displaced in their own country. 

Back in 2011, the United States and the west brokered an agreement that led to South Sudanese independence from Sudan. 

But not long after the country’s first President, Salva Kiir, sacked his deputy, Riek Machar, due to suspicions the vice-president was plotting a coup. Machar denies these claims. Tensions in the country quickly escalated into full blown conflicts. Ethnic and tribal differences also exacerbated problems between Kiir and Machar: the president comes from the majority Dinka tribe while Machar from the Nuer, which is second largest.