Juba, South Sudan
Reuters
Pope Francis on Saturday met South Sudanese children displaced by conflict and heard of the hardships of their lives in camps, telling them they would build a better future for the world’s newest country by replacing ethnic hatred with forgiveness.
People wait before Pope Francis arrives for a meeting with priests, deacons, consecrated persons and seminarians at the Cathedral of Saint Therese during his apostolic journey, in Juba, South Sudan, on 4th February, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Yara Nardi
PROTECT, ADVANCE WOMEN FOR A BETTER SOUTH SUDAN, POPE SAYS
Pope Francis joined other Christian leaders and the UN on Saturday in urging the protection and advancement of women in South Sudan, where rape has been a weapon of war, child brides are common and most girls do not reach secondary education.
Pope Francis leads an ecumenical prayer at the John Garang Mausoleum during his apostolic journey, in Juba, South Sudan, on 4th February, 2023. PICTURE: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
The rights of girls and women was a recurring theme on the penultimate day of the Pope’s visit to South Sudan, an unprecedented joint “pilgrimage of peace” with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Church of Scotland Moderator Iain Greenshields.
“Please, protect, respect, appreciate and honour every woman, every girl, young woman, mother and grandmother. Otherwise, there will be no future,” the Pope said during a meeting of the three leaders with people displaced by conflict.
Later, Welby returned to the theme in his address to about 50,000 people at an ecumenical prayer vigil at a mausoleum to South Sudan’s liberation hero John Garang.
“Young men, you will value and honour women, never raping, never violent, never cruel, never using them as if they were there to satisfy desire,” he said. “Women of South Sudan, I know that on top of the grief of conflict and the responsibility to provide for your families, many of you live with the trauma of sexual violence and the daily fear of mistreatment in your own homes”.
A United Nations report on South Sudan issued last March condemned widespread sexual violence against women and girls in conflict and said it was “fuelled by systemic impunity”. The report said “widespread rape is being perpetrated by all armed groups across the country, often as part of military tactics for which government and military leaders are responsible”.
At the event where the three religious leaders heard accounts from children living in displaced persons camps, the resident UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, also raised the issue of pervasive sexual violence against women and girls.
The Pope responded by calling on everyone in South Sudan “to ensure that women are protected, respected, valued and honoured”.
Francis said that if women are given opportunities “they will have the ability to change the face of South Sudan, to give it a peaceful and cohesive development!”
Sister Orla Treacy (centre), Sarah Adut Makender, 19, and John Sebit Malou, 26, pose for a picture on the second day of Pope Francis’ apostolic journey, in Juba, South Sudan, on 4th February, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Yara Nardi
Sister Orla Treacy, an Irish member of the Loreto Sisters religious order who runs a school in Rumbek, north of the capital, and works to prevent child marriages, said less than five per cent of girls finish secondary school. About 10 per cent of 15-year-old girls and 52 per cent of 18-year-old girls in South Sudan are married, she said.
Treacy and a group of students had walked about 200 kilometres from Lakes State to see the Pope. She said the governor of that region had recently signed a decree promising to stop child marriages.
South Sudan has the world’s highest maternal mortality rate, according to the World Bank, and poverty and hunger are rife across the country, with two thirds of the population needing humanitarian assistance as a result of conflict as well as three years of catastrophic floods.
– PHILIP PULLELLA
The Pope was visiting South Sudan with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Church of Scotland Moderator Iain Greenshields – an unprecedented joint “pilgrimage of peace”.
The three men led about 50,000 people in an open-air ecumenical prayer vigil at dusk at a mausoleum for South Sudan’s liberation hero John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash in 2005 before the country gained independence.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011 but plunged into civil war in 2013 with ethnic groups turning on each other. Despite a 2018 peace deal between the two main antagonists, bouts of inter-ethnic fighting have continued to kill and displace large numbers of civilians.
At a meeting in the capital Juba earlier, the Christian leaders listened to testimonies from displaced children including Johnson Juma Alex, 14, who has been living in a camp since 2014 after fleeing his hometown because of fighting.
“Life in the camp is not good because the area is small and crowded,” he told them, reading haltingly from a prepared text in English, which is not his native language.
“There is not enough space to play football. Many children do not go to school because there are not enough teachers and schools for all of us,” he said. After he spoke, the Pope, the Archbishop and the Moderator warmly shook his hand.
There are 2.2 million internally displaced people in South Sudan, out of a total population of about 11.6 million, and another 2.3 million have fled the country as refugees, according to the United Nations.
Extreme poverty and hunger are rife across the country, with two thirds of the population needing humanitarian assistance as a result of conflict as well as three years of catastrophic floods.
“A field to play football”
“The future cannot lie in refugee camps,” the Pope told the children after hearing their stories at the event, which was held in a prefabricated structure holding about 2,500 people.
“As you said, Johnson, there is a need for all children like yourself to have the opportunity to go to school – and to have a field to play football!”
Francis said hope for South Sudan’s future rests in children from different ethnic groups, who have suffered and are still suffering, yet who do not want to respond to evil with more evil.
“Although conflict, violence and hatred have replaced good memories on the first pages of the life of this republic, you must be the ones to rewrite its history as a history of peace!” he said.
“You bear the burden of a painful past, yet you never stop dreaming of a better future. In our meeting today, we would like to give wings to your hope,” he said.
At the vigil held as night fell at the Garang mausoleum, Welby also addressed the young people of South Sudan, urging them to reject hatred, armed conflict and sexual violence.
“You will not be deceived into war. You will not be forced to kill. You will disagree with others, but still love them,” he said.
Welby said he, the Pope and the Moderator had come to South Sudan as family, to be with the people and share the knowledge of their suffering.
“We have travelled on this pilgrimage of peace in a way that has never been done before because we love South Sudan,” he said, to huge cheers.
On Sunday morning, the three Christian leaders will return to the mausoleum to celebrate Mass, their last major event in South Sudan before leaving the country.
