A group of Catholic missionaries are choosing to stay in South Sudan even after most foreign aid workers have left.
The exodus began after South Sudanese troops attacked aid workers at a Juba hotel in July.
According to Associated Press, more than 80 armed men “raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, robbed people and carried out mock executions” for nearly four hours. One woman was raped by 15 men. Victims claim that UN peacekeepers did nothing to help.
La Sallian Christian Brother Bill Firman, director of Solidarity with South Sudan, said in a telephone interview: “We stayed because we are committed to the ordinary people who are suffering so much.
“My colleagues and I believe this is a good place for Religious to be,” the Australian brother said, noting that “we know our continued presence encourages” local residents and “provides some hope”.
Four days after the attack Catholic Relief Services, the overseas aid agency of the US bishops’ conference, said it had evacuated its “non-essential international staff” from the capital. CRS “is supporting the work of Solidarity with South Sudan to help those affected by the current violence”, its statement said.
A civil war that began in December 2013 has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced more than two million people to flee their homes in the north-east African country.
In July hundreds of people in Juba were killed in fighting that dashed hopes of a transitional government. Since then sporadic fighting has rocked the country’s north and east.
Sister Joan Mumaw of Solidarity with South Sudan said: “Violence has spread and everybody is armed. Young boys with no education and no formation for life are taken into the military.” Peace will be difficult “until the militia is stopped from killing and raping”.
Solidarity with South Sudan offers teacher and health training, agriculture, trauma healing and pastoral programmes under the auspices of the Sudan bishops’ conference.
We’ve lived in hatred too long, cardinal tells Burmese leaders
Burma’s cardinal addressed a historic gathering of government, military and ethnic leaders in the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, last week.Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon told delegates at the conference: “We need to move away from the past, working towards a peace with justice.
“For too long we have lived in mutual hatred. Now is the time to assert our oneness.”
Cardinal Bo called Burma “a religious nation” that “never had faith in atheism”. He reminded them of Christianity’s enduring presence in the hospitals and schools, in a nation that in 2015 celebrated 500 years of Catholicism. “In some of the remotest villages it is the religious leaders who animate the people. In the camps of the , religious people accompany the suffering people,” he said. “So our presence is helpful in carrying the messages of this conference to all the people, especially those affected by conflict.”
Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party led the conference. Delegates included UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
Fighting between ethnic groups resulted in a military junta that remained in power from the 1960s until last year.
Be open to grace, Pope tells medics
Pope Francis has urged healthcare workers to recognise the full dignity of the human person and not to ignore the divine.“Openness to God’s grace, which comes through faith, does not weaken human reason, but rather leads it towards knowledge of a truth which is wider and of greater benefit to humanity,” he told experts at a world congress on cardio-vascular research. More than 32,000 professionals, including cardiologists, attended the gathering in Rome.
