“The future cannot lie in refugee camps,” Pope Francis said as he greeted 2,000 internally displaced people on his second day in South Sudan. He repeated his pressing call for an end to the violence that has forced millions into camps for refugees or the internally displaced.
He later joined Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Iain Greenshields in a prayer service for peace, held at the John Garang Mausoleum in the center of Juba.
Pope Francis was given an enthusiastic welcome when he entered Freedom Hall in Juba, the nation’s capital city. Around him he could see a sad and troubling sight—so many displaced people, most of them young—but he knew too that they represented only a tiny fraction of the more than four million citizens of this country of 13 million people that are now living in camps, at home or abroad.
“The future cannot lie in refugee camps,” Pope Francis said as he greeted 2,000 internally displaced people on his second day in South Sudan.
He drew attention to this reality in his talk after hearing testimonies from three young people who recounted how they have spent most of their young lives in camps and today now see no end to this tragic situation. Many of them said they hope the pope’s visit can bring about change, as one of them—Guelele Jacon Nhial—told me: “Pope Francis is a man of God. He’s a man of prayer. He will pray to God for us, and hopefully we will have peace.”
Mr. Nhial was 15 when he entered one of the big camps in Juba in 2013. Since then he has married a young woman from the camp, and now they have two children, one 4 years old, the other 18 months. He dreams of leaving the displaced persons camp one day and finishing his education. He hopes to become an entrepreneur, but he does not see that happening without peace in the land.
Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the humanitarian coordinator of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan, also spoke about the urgent need for peace. She told the pope and his ecumenical brothers that there are over two million internally displaced people in South Sudan, and another two million who are refugees outside the country.
“South Sudan ranks fourth on the list of the world’s most neglected crises. It is also the largest refugee crisis in Africa,” she said, adding that “extreme levels of food insecurity and malnutrition affect two thirds of the country’s population.”
She also drew attention to the insecurity people experience from ongoing violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, while children risk being abducted and recruited by armed groups.
Pope Francis repeated his pressing call for an end to the violence that has forced millions into camps for refugees or the internally displaced in South Sudan.
Ms. Nyanti told Francis that women and girls were “extremely vulnerable” to sexual and gender-based violence, with U.N. statistics estimating some four out of 10 have been victims to one or more forms of assault. She said women and girls were at risk for rape when they were just out doing their daily routines and chores.
“If the women of South Sudan are given an opportunity to develop, to have space to be productive, South Sudan will be transformed,” she told the pope.
Pope Francis picked up her theme in his remarks, saying women were “the key to transforming the country.” He appealed to all South Sudanese to “protect, respect, appreciate and honor every woman, every girl, young woman, mother and grandmother.”
“Otherwise, there will be no future,” Francis said.
Francis began his talk, which was translated into English, by telling his audience, “I have been thinking of you for a long time, with a growing desire to have this meeting, to see you face to face, to shake your hands and to embrace you. Now at last I am here, together with my brothers on this pilgrimage of peace, to express to you all my closeness, all my affection. I am here with you, and I suffer for you and with you,” he said.
Women and girls in South Sudan were “extremely vulnerable” to sexual and gender-based violence, with U.N. statistics estimating some four out of 10 have been victims to one or more forms of assault.
He recalled that “due to the devastation caused by human violence as well as that caused by the floods, millions of our brothers and sisters, including many mothers with children, have had to leave their lands and abandon their villages and their homes. Sadly, in this war-torn country, being a displaced person or a refugee has become a common and collective experience.”
He again made a passionate appeal, as he had done at the presidential palace on Feb. 3, “to end all conflict and to resume the peace process in a serious way, so that violence can end and people can return to living in dignity” because “only with peace, stability and justice can there be development and social reintegration.”
“There is no room for further delay,” he said. “Great numbers of children born in recent years have known only the reality of camps for displaced persons. They have no memory of what it means to have a home; they are losing their connection with their native land, their roots and their traditions.”
“You bear the burden of a painful past,” he told the young people gathered at Freedom Hall, “yet you never stop dreaming of a better future.”
He told them “you are the seed of a new South Sudan” and said, “May you, young people of different ethnicities, write the first pages of this new chapter. Although conflict, violence and hatred have replaced good memories on the first pages of the life of this republic, you must be the ones to rewrite its history as a history of peace.”
Francis thanked the church agencies and civil society and humanitarian groups that have assisted South Sudan’s displaced people and paid tribute to the many humanitarian workers who have lost their lives in that effort. He pleaded for respect for those who seek only to help.
“They should not become targets of assaults and vandalism,” he said.
Pope Francis: “You are the seed of a new South Sudan. You must be the ones to rewrite its history as a history of peace.”
He pleaded with everyone: “Let us help South Sudan; let us not abandon its population. They have suffered and they continue to suffer so greatly!”
One of the young people at Freedom Hall, Nyakuor Rebecca, asked the pope “for a special blessing upon the children of South Sudan…so that we all might grow up together in peace.”
Francis concluded his talk by telling her: “That blessing will be very special since I will be giving it together with my brothers Justin and Iain” and “with it comes the blessing of so many of our Christian brothers and sisters in the world, who embrace and encourage you, knowing that you, your faith, your inner strength and your dreams of peace, radiate all the beauty of our shared humanity.”
The three Christian church leaders then drove to the Mausoleum of John Garang, the father of the nation, who died in a helicopter crash in 2005, and joined 50,000 people assembled there. It was the last event in this unprecedented ecumenical pilgrimage for peace. There the three church leaders led the audience in prayer and each of them spoke—in different ways assuring the South Sudanese of their ongoing future prayers and support for peace.
Francis, in his talk, encouraged all the Christians of South Sudan to pray, to work and to journey together for peace in South Sudan. “Those who would call themselves Christians," he said, "must choose which side to take. Those who choose Christ choose peace, always; those who unleash war and violence betray the Lord and deny his Gospel.”
He added, “What Jesus teaches us is clear: We are to love everyone since everyone is loved as a child of our common Father in heaven. The love of Christians is not only for those close to us, but for everyone, for in Jesus each person is our neighbor, our brother or sister—even our enemies [cf. Mt 5: 38-48]. How much more true is this of those who are members of the same people, albeit belonging to different ethnic groups?”
Pope Francis: “Those who would call themselves Christians must choose which side to take. Those who choose Christ choose peace, always; those who unleash war and violence betray the Lord and deny his Gospel.”
He said, “The Gospel must not be just a beautiful religious philosophy, but a prophecy that becomes reality in history.”
He recalled that in South Sudan Christian communities have been deeply committed to promoting processes of reconciliation. He encouraged them to continue on this path and said, “This ecumenical tradition of South Sudan is a precious treasure, an act of praise for the name of Jesus and an act of love for the church his bride, an example to all for the advancement of Christian unity.”
He prayed that “the tribalism and the partisan spirit that fuel acts of violence in this country may not impair relationships between the various confessions. On the contrary, may the witness of unity among believers overflow to the people as a whole.”
With a historic ecumenical prayer for peace, the three religious leaders concluded their pilgrimage.
Pope Francis began the day by visiting the church of St. Teresa in Juba to greet the nation’s bishops and some of its priests and consecrated men and women. On Feb. 5, he will celebrate an open-air Mass at the mausoleum and then he will take the plane back to Rome together with Archbishop Welby and Rev. Dr. Greenshields. A joint press conference has been scheduled during the flight.
With reporting from The Associated Press
