Following the postponement of Francis’ visit to South Sudan, the nation's bishops have said a papal visit is still possible and called for a renewed commitment to peace.
“Be that agent of change needed in South Sudan! Pray a lot more in sincere repentance of heart with the aim of consolidating peace in the country,” wrote the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference (SCBC) in a statement released on 6 June. “It is only such activities which can bring the Holy Father to South Sudan in no distant period,” continued the statement.
The statement, signed by Bishop Barani Eduardo, President of the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference, on behalf of the bishop’s of Sudan and South Sudan, noted the Pope’s particular concern for the country and his prayers for South Sudan on several occasions at the Angelus.
“Pope Francis continues to remind us of the cost of war, particularly on the powerless and defenceless, and urges us towards the imperative of peace,” wrote the bishops.
They said that there was still optimism that the scheduled visit by the pope to the country has not been put off completely.
“Our great desire, hope and expectation as the SCBC for the Sudan and South Sudan is that, the visit of the Holy Father hasn’t been put off completely, but the pastoral visit will be reconsidered and that South Sudan as a new nation will be graced by His Holiness Pope Francis,” read the statement.
His presence would console the grieving and heal the broken-hearted, they said.
The bishops said the pope’s decision not to visit in 2017 should be received “in respect and prayer.” They suggested challenges facing the country, including lack of security, were obstacles to a papal visit.
The bishops also reflected on Francis’s witness in the world.
“The Holy Father has been a leading voice for peace and for dialogue between people of different faiths and nations,” the bishops’ statement continued. “He has also, in both his words and his deeds, called all of us to address the challenges of poverty and inequality in our own country and around the world.
“He reminds us that in the eyes of God our measure as individuals, and our measure as a society, is not determined by power or wealth or station or celebrity, but by how well we attend to Scripture’s call to lift up the poor and the marginalised, to stand up for justice and against inequality, and to ensure that every human being is able to live in dignity - because we are all made in the image of God,” the bishops said.
The Vatican announced in late May that the Pope would not be making the trip to war-torn South Sudan during 2017. Francis was due to make the visit with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
The trip is “emphatically not cancelled” but postponed until it can best effect peace Welby told the Tablet shortly after the announcement.
Francis first raised the prospect of making ecumenical history by carrying out a joint visit to South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury in February of this year.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has been wracked by violence since December 2013 when fighting broke out following a dispute between President Kiir, who is Dinka, and former vice-president Machar, who is Nuer. The country has since collapsed into a brutal ethnic war, involving massacres, starvation and rape. An estimated 300,000 people have died and some 3 million have been displaced. Around 5 million people - half of the country's total population - are reported to be on the brink of starvation due to food shortages and man-made famine.
A UN report released in April said South Sudan is experiencing ethnic cleansing by mostly government forces and their allies. That report described the country as teetering on the edge of genocide.
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