Pope Francis’s postponed visit to South Sudan will go ahead in early February 2023.
The Vatican announced today that the Pope will make an apostolic journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo, visiting the capital Kinshasa from 31 January to 3 February, before travelling to Juba, South Sudan, for an “ecumenical pilgrimage of peace”.
In South Sudan, the Pope will join the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields, for a series of events up to 5 February.
These will include meetings in Juba’s Freedom Hall with people displaced by famine and continued violence, and an ecumenical prayer service at the John Garang Mausoleum, the tomb of the leader of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army whose movement led to the foundation of South Sudan in 2011, six years after his death.
Pope Francis will also celebrate Mass at the mausoleum on the morning of 5 February.
Dr Greenshields said that they would come “as servants of the global Church, to accompany the people of South Sudan as they seek to give expression to Jesus’s words that ‘blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God’”.
South Sudan has been afflicted by civil war since 2013, with Church leaders acting as mediators in the sporadic peace negotiations. A report published last week by Global Rights Compliance said that the government is using starvation as a weapon of war against its own citizens.
The joint visit was first proposed by Archbishop Welby in 2017 and promised in 2019 during a spiritual retreat at the Vatican for South Sudanese politicians.
It had been scheduled for the summer of 2022, but was postponed after the Pope’s doctors advised him not to travel due to problems with his knee.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity described the visit as “an unprecedented ecumenical partnership”.
“This shared pilgrimage, witnessing to their unity in Christ, the Prince of Peace, after centuries of historic division, will reflect the possibilities of peace and the promise of hope,” said a dicastery statement.
It continued: “The Christian communities of South Sudan have a legacy of powerful witness to their faith. Through working together, they have been a sign and instrument of the reconciliation God desires for their whole country and all of creation. This visit aims to build on and re-energise that legacy at a time when peace remains fragile.”
Archbishop Welby welcomed the new arrangements for the trip.
“We come as servants,” he said, “together we share a deep desire to stand in solidarity with the people of South Sudan in their suffering, to review and renew the commitments its leaders made at the Vatican in 2019.”
The archbishop is currently making a visit to Kyiv to display solidarity with the people of Ukraine. On Tuesday he visited Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw and met the apostolic nuncio to Poland, Archbishop Salvatore Pennachio.
“In this season of Advent,” said Archbishop Welby, “we remember that Jesus was born into conflict and persecution – and became a refugee when his parents fled violence and persecution to seek safety in Egypt.”
This follows the archbishop’s visit to Mozambique last week, where he met people traumatised and displaced by Islamist terror attacks.
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