Pope Francis is wrapping up his trip to the continent of Africa on Sunday from the world’s newest country, South Sudan, exhorting the eastern African nation to make become immune to the “venom of hatred” in the interests of peace.
At a Mass attended by tens of thousands of Christians at John Garang de Mabior Mausoleum in the South Sudanese capital city of Juba, the Pope called for reconciliation and mutual forgiveness for past wrongs after years of ethnic conflicts.
“Today I would like to thank you, because you are the salt of the earth in this country. Yet, when you consider its many wounds, the violence that increases the venom of hatred, and the injustice that causes misery and poverty, you may feel small and powerless,” Pope Francis told the crowd. “This country, so beautiful yet ravaged by violence, needs the light that each one of you has, or better, the light that each one of you is.”
During his three-day visit to South Sudan, Francis met with the country’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit, along with other South Sudanese political leaders, and called on them for peace.
“Dear President and vice-presidents, in the name of God, of the God to whom we prayed together in Rome, of the God who is gentle and humble in heart, the God in whom so many people of this beloved country believe, now is the time to say, 'No more of this', without ifs or buts. No more bloodshed,” the Pope told the leaders.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, split from majority-Muslim Sudan in 2011, but has been beset by civil war and internal political and ethnic conflicts. In 2018, Sudan facilitated a peace deal between South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his former rival and now deputy Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon, ending years of armed conflict.
Francis’ visit to the DRC and South Sudan is the Pope’s fourth trip to the African continent since being appointed in 2013. In his first trip to Africa, the Pope visited Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic in 2015.
The second trip comprised a visit to Morocco in 2019, before paying a third visit to the continent in the same year, when he visited Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius.