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Pope Francis appealed Sunday to the folks of South Sudan to put down their “weapons of hatred” at an open-air mass on the ultimate day of his pilgrimage to a rustic blighted by violence and poverty.
Massive crowds of ecstatic worshippers streamed into the John Garang Mausoleum within the capital Juba to see the 86-year-old pontiff, who has made peace and reconciliation the theme of his three-day journey to the world’s latest nation.
“Allow us to lay down the weapons of hatred and revenge. Allow us to overcome the dislikes and aversions that over time have grow to be continual and danger pitting tribes and ethnic teams towards each other,” he stated in his homily.
Folks waved nationwide flags and sang “Welcome holy father to South Sudan” because the Argentine pontiff moved by the crowds in his popemobile earlier than delivering the mass to an viewers native authorities put at round 70,000.
Francis is on the primary papal go to to the largely Christian nation because it achieved independence from primarily Muslim Sudan in 2011 and plunged right into a civil battle that killed almost 400,000 folks.
Regardless of a peace deal signed in 2018 between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar, a lot of its situations stay unmet and violence continues to roil the nation, driving folks from their properties into displacement camps.
The wheelchair-bound pontiff, who himself tried to dealer peace in the course of the civil battle, obtained a rapturous welcome all through his go to.
“I got here to see the pope carry change to the nation. For a few years we’ve been at battle, however we want peace. We would like the pope to hope for us,” stated James Agiu, 24.
He was among the many many who stayed in a single day to hitch the mass on the John Garang mausoleum — in-built honour of South Sudan’s insurgent hero who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2005.
“I arrived final night time. I’ve been ready right here. All night time, sitting and ready,” Agiu stated, laughing. “After he goes, I sleep.”
On Saturday, Francis met victims of the civil battle, who had been delivered to Juba from numerous camps, and urged the federal government to renew the peace course of and restore “dignity” to the tens of millions affected by battle.
With 2.2 million Internally Displaced Folks and one other two million exterior the nation, South Sudan is witness to the worst refugee disaster in Africa.
“I’ve been struggling in my life. That’s the reason I’m right here, so the pope can bless me and my household,” stated 32-year-old Josephine James at Sunday’s mass.
“Ever since he arrived, folks have been glad. I’m very glad.”
The papal go to has been carefully adopted within the devoutly Christian nation of 12 million folks, the place church leaders performed a key function in defending civilians in the course of the push for independence and the 2013-18 ethnic battle.
He made a pointed speech on Friday telling the nation’s leaders they should make “a brand new begin” towards reconciliation and finish the greed and energy struggles tearing the nation aside.
“Future generations will both venerate your names or cancel their reminiscence, based mostly on what you now do,” he advised an viewers that included Kiir and Machar. “No extra bloodshed, no extra conflicts, no extra violence.”
The pope had promised in 2019 to journey to South Sudan when he hosted Kiir and Machar at a Vatican retreat and requested them to respect the ceasefire.
In scenes that reverberated in South Sudan, Francis knelt and kissed the toes of two foes whose private armies had been accused of horrific battle crimes.
However 4 years later, the oil-rich nation stays mired in intractable battle, compounded by poverty, starvation and pure disasters.
In an indication of the challenges, no less than 21 folks had been killed in a cattle raid on the eve of Francis’s go to in what native authorities termed a reprisal assault in Central Equatoria state.
The pope’s cease in South Sudan adopted a four-day go to to the Democratic Republic of Congo, one other resource-rich nation suffering from persistent battle and likewise typically missed by the world.
The journey — Francis’s fifth to Africa — was initially scheduled for 2022 however needed to be postponed due to issues with the pope’s knee.
AFP
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