Aid to the Church in Need: Sudan: Bringing Christ back to the ghost town

Sudan: Bringing Christ back to the ghost town

Posted by Press release on 26/6/2008, 9:56 am
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ACN News, Thursday, 26th June 2008 – SUDAN

Bringing Christ back to the ghost town

Bishop-elect sets out challenges in forgotten corner of Sudan

By John Pontifex

REBUILDING the spiritual foundations and social fabric of a society decimated by violence and poverty are the twin priorities of the man about to be ordained bishop in one of Sudan’s most deprived regions.
Speaking on the eve of his ordination as Bishop of Tambura-Yambio, Father Edward Hiiboro Kussala spoke of giving “new hope” in a corner of southern Sudan which was left a ghost town after nearly three quarters of the population fled during the country’s 25-year civil war .
As preparations get under way for Sunday’s (29th June) episcopal ordination, Bishop Hiiboro gave an interview with Aid to the Church in Need in which he described a “very challenging” situation with schools, hospitals, roads and other forms of communications were in tatters.
Speaking from Yambio, the bishop-elect said: “The most important thing for us is deepening the spirituality of our people – we cannot expect to get anywhere without putting Christ at the centre of what we do.”
Fr Hiiboro, who at 44 will become the youngest Catholic bishop in Sudan, said: “We also desperately need to build peace – reconstruction is very important.”
Describing Yambio, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, as “the most isolated place” in Sudan, Fr Hiiboro said “90 percent” of the infrastructure had been destroyed with children having lessons in the open air because of a lack of classrooms.
The bishop-elect said that displaced people from the region of Western Equatoria were at last beginning to drift back from as far as Khartoum, Central African Republic and Uganda, building up the numbers which in 25 years had slumped from 1.5 million to barely 500,000. About 60,000 people have returned since 2003.
Up to 75 percent of people in the diocese are Catholic and the Church has a key role in social welfare support projects.
Sudan is a priority country for Aid to the Church in Need and the charity is offering key support including support for the diocese’s 400 catechists, help for Tambura-Yambio’s 33 priests and projects to build and repair churches and chapels.
Lacking any suitable church building, Sunday’s (29th June) episcopal ordination ceremony will take place in Yambio’s outdoor “green cathedral”. Most of Sudan’s Catholic bishops will be present.
For Fr Edward, the episcopal ordination presided over by Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum, will be a dramatic break with a past spent mostly as an academic, most recently as professor of moral ethics at Khartoum’s St Paul’s Seminary, Omdurman.
Fr Edward succeeds Bishop Joseph Gasi, 80, who has retired as Bishop of Tambura-Yambio after more than 33 years in the post.

The 'Green Cathedral' of Tambura-Yambio

Editor's Notes

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web:www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org