Pope invited to visit Sudan, South Sudan

South Sudanese and Sudanese archbishops have invited Pope Francis to visit their countries.

Pope Francis met with the bishops of Sudan and South Sudan on Wednesday, shortly before his weekly general audience. The bishops are in Rome for a meeting organised by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Sudan Tribune reported on Friday.

They spoke about peace, poverty, and vocations in both countries.

Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Juba, Paulino Lukudu Loro, said Pope Francis accepted to visit the two countries at an appropriate time.

“He said: I am ready. I want to. I want to. I want to. But we have to leave everything in the hands of the Lord,” the Archbishop quoted Pope Francis as saying.

He told Vatican Radio’s 105Live that the “issue of peace” is still a priority in both countries, especially South Sudan, “because we are at war”.

In December 2013, civil war broke out in South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation after it split from Sudan in 2011. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and more than a million people fled their homes.

“Without peace, religion has difficulties,” Archbishop Loro said, adding that the church must also address the issue of vacant dioceses, as well as providing support for the local clergy.

The Roman Catholic Church in South Sudan has one archdiocese, and six suffragan dioceses. The bishops are members of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which includes the bishops from Sudan.

Roman Catholics make up over a third of the population in South Sudan, and make up just three percent of the population in Sudan, where the vast majority of the people are Muslims.

Pope John Paul II visited Khartoum in 1993 at the height of the civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the animist and Christian south, denouncing the use of violence in the name of religion.

(Sudan Tribune)