© Reuters. Pope Francis greets individuals in the course of the Holy Mass at John Garang Mausoleum, throughout his apostolic journey, in Juba, South Sudan, February 5, 2023. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
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By Philip Pullella and Waakhe Simon Wudu
JUBA (Reuters) -Pope Francis wound up a peace mission to South Sudan on Sunday urging the individuals to make themselves resistant to the “venom of hatred” to attain the peace and prosperity which have eluded them by years of bloody ethnic conflicts.
Francis presided at an open-air Mass on the grounds of a mausoleum for South Sudan’s liberation hero John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash in 2005 earlier than the predominantly Christian nation broke away from Muslim Sudan in 2011.
The 86-year-old pope wove his homily across the themes which have dominated his journey to the world’s latest nation – reconciliation and mutual forgiveness for previous wrongs. The gang sang, drummed and ululated as Francis entered the dusty space.
He begged the gang of about 70,000 individuals to shun the “blind fury of violence”.
Two years after independence, South Sudan plunged right into a civil conflict that killed 400,000 individuals. Regardless of a 2018 peace deal between the 2 primary antagonists, bouts of combating have continued to kill and displace massive numbers of civilians.
On the finish of the service, in a farewell tackle shortly earlier than heading to the airport to fly house, the pope thanked the individuals of South Sudan for the love they confirmed him.
“Pricey brothers and sisters, I return to Rome with you even nearer to my coronary heart,” he informed them. “By no means lose hope. And lose no alternative to construct peace. Might hope and peace dwell amongst you. Might hope and peace dwell in South Sudan!”
The pope has had a longstanding curiosity in South Sudan. In one of the crucial outstanding gestures of his papacy, he knelt to kiss the ft of the nation’s beforehand warring leaders throughout a gathering on the Vatican in 2019.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, chief of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the Basic Meeting of the Church of Scotland, accompanied the pope throughout his go to to South Sudan.
The “pilgrimage of peace” was the primary time in Christian historical past that leaders of the Catholic, Anglican and Reformed traditions carried out a joint international go to.
HOPE OF A TURNING POINT
Earlier on his Africa journey, the pope visited Democratic Republic of Congo, house to the continent’s largest Roman Catholic neighborhood, the place he celebrated Mass for 1,000,000 individuals and heard harrowing tales from individuals harmed by conflict within the japanese a part of the nation.
Among the many worshippers at Sunday’s Mass within the South Sudanese capital Juba was Ferida Modon, 72, who misplaced three of her kids to battle.
“I would like peace to return to South Sudan. Sure, I imagine that his go to will change the scenario. We are actually uninterested in battle,” she stated. “We wish God to take heed to our prayers.”
Jesilen Gaba, 42, a widow with 4 kids, stated: “The truth that the three Church buildings united for the sake of South Sudan, that is the turning level for peace. I would like the go to to be a blessing to us. We’ve been at conflict, now we have misplaced many individuals.”
Francis made one other attraction for an finish to the tribalism, monetary wrongdoing and political cronyism on the root of lots of the nation’s issues.
He urged the individuals to construct “good human relationships as a manner of curbing the corruption of evil, the illness of division, the filth of fraudulent enterprise dealings and the plague of injustice”.
South Sudan has a few of the largest reserves in sub-Saharan Africa however a U.N. report in 2021 stated the nation’s leaders had diverted “staggering quantities of cash and different wealth” from public coffers and sources.
The federal government dismissed the report and has denied accusations of widespread corruption.
