Retired Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako has criticised the standards of new priests in Sudan. "During the days I have spent here in Wau, I have been meeting priests and I have noticed that most of them don’t know the liturgy of the church, they have shallow teaching of the church,” said the Archbishop Emeritus of Khartoum. Wako, who turns 80 next month, was honoured by the government of South Sudan in 2016 for the educational programs that he ran during the Sudanese civil war. In the course of the 22-year conflict, Wako established upward of 100 schools for the displaced children of the region. Noting the damaging effects of displacement on children, Wako pushed the archdiocese to boost "programmes for children in education and healthcare". Thanks to his efforts, the schools are estimated to have educated two million children. The cardinal called on priests to "upgrade their standards" to better serve the church and society.