Pope Francis in South Sudan: “I pray that rivers of peace will flow here”

“Here as a pilgrim I pray because in this dear country, gift of the Nile, rivers of peace flow; may the inhabitants of South Sudan, a land of great abundance, see reconciliation blossom and prosperity sprout”. These are the first words of Pope Francis in Juba. He wrote them in the honor book of the Presidential Palace where he will shortly be giving the speech to the country’s authorities.

With the arrival in the capital of South Sudan, the second part of the 40th apostolic journey of Pope Francis, the fifth in Africa. The part, if you will, more ecumenical and marked by a spirit of sharing and interreligious rapprochement. Indeed, here the Pontiff will see the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welbyhighest authority of the Anglican Church, e Pastor Iain Greenshields, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, on the occasion of a meeting long planned and strongly desired by Bergoglio. A special “three-way meeting” between different but not incompatible religious communities, which intends to place a yearning for peace at the center of a context divided and bloodied by decades of struggle and violence.

Various Churches and ecclesial communities thus archive ancient confessional rivalries and work side by side in trying to extinguish conflicts and support the construction of a peaceful civil coexistence, oriented towards the common good: with this fundamental aspiration, the special spiritual summit between Bergoglio, Welby and Greenshields.

A “young” state, the result of a bloody civil war

Born in 2011 between two atrocious civil wars, South Sudan achieves independence after almost 30 years of war. The capital becomes Juba, where they currently live together at least 50 ethnic groups. In 2005 the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the southern regions and the government of Khartoum paved the way for the country’s independence. Since it broke away from Sudan, most of the Catholics who were concentrated in Juba and surrounding areas have chosen to stay in South Sudan.

Women have an average of 5-6 children and life expectancy does not reach 60 years of age. More than half of the population is at risk of starvation and lives in total food insecurity. About two million children suffer from malnutrition.

The political, economic and social instability that the country is experiencing is mainly due to the long conflict between the president Save Kiirof the largest Dinka ethnic group, and his deputy Riek Machar, of Nuer ethnicity. The two mortal enemies in 2019 they went to the Vatican and Pope Francis kissed their feet, begging for peace.

Although in South Sudan only 4-5% of the population has electricity and access to water is almost non-existent, theThe country is very rich in natural resourcesincluded gold, diamonds, oil. Resources rendered unavailable due to the situation of insecurity and political and social instability. Before the birth of South Sudan as an independent state, the conflict in Darfura region located in the western part of the country, has complicated the situation.

Officially exploded in 2003 and declared ended in 2009, the war has caused at least 400 thousand dead and about two million displaced. Despite a peace agreement signed in Ethiopia in 2018 and never respected, to date strong ethnic tensions remain.

In South Sudan, from last month of AugustI am the fighting resumed between rival militias. For the end of 2024in the country are expected elections repeatedly postponed.

South Sudan, almost 40% Catholics in a land of faith and Comboni missionaries

And it is no coincidence that the three religious authorities have chosen South Sudan as the venue for their summit. A land where “the Christian proclamation”, recalled Father Christopher Hartley, a Spanish missionary from the diocese of Toledo, now in Nandi, diocese of Tombura-Yambio “had arrived in the current region of South Sudan as early as the sixth century”. In many regions that are now part of South Sudan, missionary activity has assumed relevance and continuity since the 1970s.

Out of a population of over 16 million people, approximately 6.2 million of South Sudanese (37.2% of the national population) they are catholic. “Saint Josephine Bakhitathe first African Comboni nun born around 1845 in the Nuba Mountains, e St Daniel Comboni they are the two great martyrs venerated by the South Sudanese”. Despite their expulsion in 1964 and the bloody war in 1983, the work of the Comboni missionaries has never failed.

Other ecclesial communities and Muslims (a minority)

Other non-Catholic Churches and ecclesial communities arrived in the territories of Sudan starting from 1899. The Anglicans, through the Church Missionary Society, already in the first years of their presence in the region, thanks to their preaching and missionary commitment, administered baptism to dozens of thousands of inhabitants. Currently, the Episcopal Church of Sudan, which is part of the Anglican Communion, is numerically the second largest Church in both Sudan and South Sudan, after the Catholic Church. The United Presbyterian Church, which is part of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, began its work in Sudan in 1900. Then, during the 20th century, the missionaries of many other ecclesial communities with a Reformed and Evangelical imprint, such as the Sudanese Church of Christ, have reached the country, concentrating their activities in the south.

Among the other faith communities present in the country, Muslims are a minority.

A realityso, compositevariegated, where, however, the coexistence of faiths, creeds and churches – despite the wars and political struggles that have perpetrated over the years – it has not caused the community spirit to fade with which the various communities have lived for decades. Here is the meaning of the “authentically ecumenical” journey imagined by Pope Francis with Justin Welby and Iain Greenshields.