Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Fides Service) - “True peace is much more than the absence of war - the Catholic Bishops of Sudan wrote in a Pastoral Letter issued on the occasion of the recent Peace Agreement which ended civil strife in southern Sudan - What is needed now is our continued prayers along with our individual and community efforts in order that the tasks of peace building be effective”. The agreement signed between the government of Khartoum and the southern Sudan rebel movement Sudan People’s Liberation Movement SPLA put an end to twenty years of devastating war.
Years of civil strife and all sorts of violence cannot be forgotten immediately and the Bishops say in their Letter addressed to the Christian Faithful and all people of goodwill that every citizen must play a part in building peace: “The peace we seek to build in civil society is an order and harmony in the community so that individual persons and the communities themselves can develop fully and freely. Such peace building has social, economic, political, cultural and religious dimensions. We urge each and everyone as citizens responsible for building such a peace to contribute according to their God given talents and capacities.”.
The Bishops stressed the importance of respect for the religious beliefs and freedom of conscience: “Our civic communities are multi-ethnic and multi-religious. As Catholics we encourage all persons to follow their conscience and we respect their religious beliefs and practices. We foster our faithful to join with other faith based groups to engage in common initiatives for the benefit of our people. "However, we do not have a spirit of timidity, but of love, power and self control" (Tit. 1:4). We must feel called to live out our faith with pride and without fear or shame as the greatest gift to be developed in our peace time.”.
Encouraging Catholics to faithfully keep holy the Lord’s Day, Sunday, gathering for prayer even there where there is no resident priest reminding them that it is from the Eucharist that Christian draw strength, the Bishops urge all citizens to take an active part in re building the civil society: “Take responsibility to help protect and promote the basic rights of others, mindful especially of the infirm, the elderly, single parents, other vulnerable groups and recent arrivals”.
The long awaited comprehensive peace agreement which ended the civil war in southern Sudan was signed in January this year. An important point of the agreement regarded profits from Sudan’s oil deposits, found mainly in the south, which will be shared fifty-fifty between the central government and the southern region administration.
The agreement established an interim period of 6 years and 6 months and free elections midway, after three years. At the end of the 6 years and 6 months there will be a referendum for the people in the south to choose between independence and being part of a federal state of Sudan.
The war in Sudan which started in 1983 cost at least 2 million lives and left several million homeless. Not included in the peace agreement was conflict in the western Sudanese region Darfur, which borders on Chad. In Darfur since 2003 insurgent groups claiming for more government attention and intervention for the development of the region are being ferociously repressed by pro-government militia. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 10/2/2005 righe 46 parole 549)
