Fwd: [sudans-john-ashworth] 'Hopes shattered' as Pope Francis' trip postponed
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Elisabeth Janaina
Jun 5, 2017, 5:31:30 AM6/5/17
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From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: 5 Jun 2017 10:13
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] 'Hopes shattered' as Pope Francis' trip postponed
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
'Hopes shattered' as Francis' South Sudan trip postponed
Chris Herlinger | Jun. 2, 2017
National Catholic Reporter
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
The news earlier this week that the Vatican put plans for Pope Francis
to visit South Sudan on indefinite hold came as no surprise to one of
the country's most prominent Catholic bishops.
"From the onset, it is clear that the police we have in South Sudan
don't have the capabilities to secure the historic papal visit,"
Bishop Santo Loku Pio Doggale told me in an email just as I had
completed a two-week reporting assignment in the war-torn country and
just two days after I had interviewed the auxiliary bishop in his
offices in the capital of Juba.
"For me it is not a surprise at all," Doggale said of the Vatican announcement.
The Vatican did not outright cancel a visit, but said a trip would not
happen this year. As my NCR colleague Josh McElwee reported May 30,
security concerns apparently tipped the balance against a papal visit
to South Sudan, which had been eyed, tentatively, for October.
A visit by Francis would have been welcomed by the religious, both men
and women, I met during my stay in South Sudan. They are working in
some of the most difficult and challenging conditions on earth. A
papal visit — even if, as the rumors had it, the visit would last for
only a day — would have given them, and South Sudan's large Catholic
population, a much-needed lift and boost.
"I felt really my hopes shattered and maybe the hopes of many of our
people who would have wanted him [the pope] to come and bless our land
with a message of peace," Kenyan Sr. Anne Kiragu, a superior of a
small Daughters of St. Paul community in Juba, wrote in an email June
1.
"The pastor should come where the flock is," Fr. Raimundo Nonato Rocha
dos Santos, a Brazilian Comboni missionary, told me when I interviewed
him two weeks ago. Rocha, who enthusiastically endorsed the idea of a
papal visit, said it would "be meaningful and give people hope."
"It would be good to come, and call the attention of the world to
South Sudan," Rocha said, and perhaps help revive a moribund peace
process between the government of Salva Kiir Mayardit and its
political opponents.
However, Doggale, the auxiliary bishop of Juba, and an outspoken
critic of Kiir's government, said a papal visit might have used by the
government as tacit support at a time when it is being criticized by
Doggale and others for alleged human rights abuses and during a time
when "we have a divided population."
Still, when I spoke to the bishop in person on May 29, Doggale
acknowledged that a visit by Francis "could send a strong message to
the warring parties, that the church is still here, witnessing, and we
still have an opportunity to broker peace, rebuild our lives and bring
us together."
He added: "It could send a very strong message that we need peace more
urgently than ever."
In his email message, the bishop also told me that Sudan's bishops had
been divided on the need for a visit now, given the extreme hardships
facing South Sudan, which include not only civil war, internal
conflict and a worsening humanitarian situation but also a poor
economy that is spiraling downward.
"The logistical arrangements that would need much cash would have been
a big burden to the already starving population in an ailing economy,"
Doggale said.
"The Holy Spirit has guided the pope," the bishop said of the decision
to postpone a visit to South Sudan. "We are happy to wait for another
chance [at a papal visit]."
The issue of South Sudan's insecurity came up often when I interviewed
Doggale. As one small example, we both mentioned the Good Shepherd
Peace Center, a new facility for use by church personnel located about
10 miles southwest of Juba near the Kit River.
I visited the center for an afternoon and it's a lovely, handsome
place — billing itself as a "center for human, pastoral and spiritual
formation, peace-building and trauma healing." On the day I was there,
a group of Catholic sisters was enrolled in a management training
course put on by the African Sisters Education Collaborative. The
center is sponsored by the Religious Superiors Association of South
Sudan.
Yet the unpaved road out to the center is still considered risky — I
heard about robberies and abductions on the roadway. And given the
insecurity, the tranquility of the center's rural surroundings feels
not so much peaceful as lonely and poignant.
The area near the Kit River had been the site of intense fighting
between South Sudanese rebels and Sudanese troops during the long
years of war for South Sudanese independence. (South Sudan won its
independence from Sudan in 2011.) A bombed-out church, not yet
restored and adjoining the center, serves as a sober reminder of the
country's legacy of war.
To get into the center's entrance, you pass armed guards — not an
unusual sight in South Sudan, certainly, but still a sad reminder of
the country's reality right now.
One center employee told me the center can feel a bit caged.
"We need the guards, and it's a contradiction — a peace center needing
guards," the employee told me. "But that's the country."
Doggale shook his head when I recounted my experience at the center.
"There's no guarantee of safety," he said of the situation in South
Sudan — a fact reconfirmed this week by the pope's decision to
postpone his visit.
In an email from Rome, where he is on leave, Rocha said he was
"feeling disappointed for I had hopes that he [Pope Francis] would
visit South Sudan this year."
Rocha also said that the subject of South Sudan came up when he and
other Combonis met the pope during a general audience on May 31. Rocha
said, "As he approached us wearing a large smile he [the pope] said:
'Bravi, Comboniani! Bravi, Comboniani!' ['Well done, Comboni
missionaries!']
"I took the chance to tell him, almost shouting: 'Come to South Sudan.
Come to South Sudan.' He was very close and replied: 'Non mi lasciano
andare.' ['They do not let me go.']"
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/hopes-shattered-francis-south-sudan-trip-postponed
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
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From: "John Ashworth" <ashwor...@gmail.com>
Date: 5 Jun 2017 10:13
Subject: [sudans-john-ashworth] 'Hopes shattered' as Pope Francis' trip postponed
To: "Group" <sudans-joh...@googlegroups.com>
Cc:
'Hopes shattered' as Francis' South Sudan trip postponed
Chris Herlinger | Jun. 2, 2017
National Catholic Reporter
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
The news earlier this week that the Vatican put plans for Pope Francis
to visit South Sudan on indefinite hold came as no surprise to one of
the country's most prominent Catholic bishops.
"From the onset, it is clear that the police we have in South Sudan
don't have the capabilities to secure the historic papal visit,"
Bishop Santo Loku Pio Doggale told me in an email just as I had
completed a two-week reporting assignment in the war-torn country and
just two days after I had interviewed the auxiliary bishop in his
offices in the capital of Juba.
"For me it is not a surprise at all," Doggale said of the Vatican announcement.
The Vatican did not outright cancel a visit, but said a trip would not
happen this year. As my NCR colleague Josh McElwee reported May 30,
security concerns apparently tipped the balance against a papal visit
to South Sudan, which had been eyed, tentatively, for October.
A visit by Francis would have been welcomed by the religious, both men
and women, I met during my stay in South Sudan. They are working in
some of the most difficult and challenging conditions on earth. A
papal visit — even if, as the rumors had it, the visit would last for
only a day — would have given them, and South Sudan's large Catholic
population, a much-needed lift and boost.
"I felt really my hopes shattered and maybe the hopes of many of our
people who would have wanted him [the pope] to come and bless our land
with a message of peace," Kenyan Sr. Anne Kiragu, a superior of a
small Daughters of St. Paul community in Juba, wrote in an email June
1.
"The pastor should come where the flock is," Fr. Raimundo Nonato Rocha
dos Santos, a Brazilian Comboni missionary, told me when I interviewed
him two weeks ago. Rocha, who enthusiastically endorsed the idea of a
papal visit, said it would "be meaningful and give people hope."
"It would be good to come, and call the attention of the world to
South Sudan," Rocha said, and perhaps help revive a moribund peace
process between the government of Salva Kiir Mayardit and its
political opponents.
However, Doggale, the auxiliary bishop of Juba, and an outspoken
critic of Kiir's government, said a papal visit might have used by the
government as tacit support at a time when it is being criticized by
Doggale and others for alleged human rights abuses and during a time
when "we have a divided population."
Still, when I spoke to the bishop in person on May 29, Doggale
acknowledged that a visit by Francis "could send a strong message to
the warring parties, that the church is still here, witnessing, and we
still have an opportunity to broker peace, rebuild our lives and bring
us together."
He added: "It could send a very strong message that we need peace more
urgently than ever."
In his email message, the bishop also told me that Sudan's bishops had
been divided on the need for a visit now, given the extreme hardships
facing South Sudan, which include not only civil war, internal
conflict and a worsening humanitarian situation but also a poor
economy that is spiraling downward.
"The logistical arrangements that would need much cash would have been
a big burden to the already starving population in an ailing economy,"
Doggale said.
"The Holy Spirit has guided the pope," the bishop said of the decision
to postpone a visit to South Sudan. "We are happy to wait for another
chance [at a papal visit]."
The issue of South Sudan's insecurity came up often when I interviewed
Doggale. As one small example, we both mentioned the Good Shepherd
Peace Center, a new facility for use by church personnel located about
10 miles southwest of Juba near the Kit River.
I visited the center for an afternoon and it's a lovely, handsome
place — billing itself as a "center for human, pastoral and spiritual
formation, peace-building and trauma healing." On the day I was there,
a group of Catholic sisters was enrolled in a management training
course put on by the African Sisters Education Collaborative. The
center is sponsored by the Religious Superiors Association of South
Sudan.
Yet the unpaved road out to the center is still considered risky — I
heard about robberies and abductions on the roadway. And given the
insecurity, the tranquility of the center's rural surroundings feels
not so much peaceful as lonely and poignant.
The area near the Kit River had been the site of intense fighting
between South Sudanese rebels and Sudanese troops during the long
years of war for South Sudanese independence. (South Sudan won its
independence from Sudan in 2011.) A bombed-out church, not yet
restored and adjoining the center, serves as a sober reminder of the
country's legacy of war.
To get into the center's entrance, you pass armed guards — not an
unusual sight in South Sudan, certainly, but still a sad reminder of
the country's reality right now.
One center employee told me the center can feel a bit caged.
"We need the guards, and it's a contradiction — a peace center needing
guards," the employee told me. "But that's the country."
Doggale shook his head when I recounted my experience at the center.
"There's no guarantee of safety," he said of the situation in South
Sudan — a fact reconfirmed this week by the pope's decision to
postpone his visit.
In an email from Rome, where he is on leave, Rocha said he was
"feeling disappointed for I had hopes that he [Pope Francis] would
visit South Sudan this year."
Rocha also said that the subject of South Sudan came up when he and
other Combonis met the pope during a general audience on May 31. Rocha
said, "As he approached us wearing a large smile he [the pope] said:
'Bravi, Comboniani! Bravi, Comboniani!' ['Well done, Comboni
missionaries!']
"I took the chance to tell him, almost shouting: 'Come to South Sudan.
Come to South Sudan.' He was very close and replied: 'Non mi lasciano
andare.' ['They do not let me go.']"
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/hopes-shattered-francis-south-sudan-trip-postponed
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+44 787 976 8030 (UK mobile)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)
Skype: jashworth1
PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation
--
--
The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group.
To post to this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sudan-john-ashworth-unsub...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudans-john-ashworth" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sudans-john-ashworth+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sudans-john-ashworth.
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