The South Sudanese Catholic Bishops say they believe the leaders of South Sudan have do not know how to make peace and they are confused of what to do next.
In a message issued on Friday in Juba after their three days meeting, bishops have reiterated their call on warring parties to silence the gun and stop killing.
They say it is an acceptable to keep on negotiating positions and percentages while the killing continues.
Paulino Lukudo Loro, the archbishop of Juba archdiocese read the message during a prayer for peace at St. Theresa Cathedral at Kator.
He says they have come to conclusion that South Sudanese leaders are not ready to bring peace because they are confused and they don’t know what to do for the country
‘We are dissatisfied that our leaders in both government and oppositions have so far been unable to put their own interest aside and make peace for the good of the people of South Sudan. We fear that our leaders do not know how to make peace. They are confused. They are military people who see the World through the lens of violence. They need help, not so much with the technical and political details but with the spiritual and moral courage to make peace’
Bishop Lukudu says their leaders are traumatized with which they need to be healed from it. He notes that for more than four years of senseless war the leaders have killed enough people and there are no more live to be lost for political gain.
‘Tens of thousands of deaths, millions of people displaced. Looting, rape, hunger, economic collapse, break down of the rule of law, destruction of the nations’ infrastructure, children denied education and families denied health care. This represents failure’
The Catholic bishops ask, ‘How many more failures, the leaders’ need, before they will admit that they have failed and that they do not know what to do’. He says their leaders have preferred war over taking the risk of bringing peace to their own people whom they fought to liberate.
‘We, the Catholic bishops pledged our full support for this process which should include a spiritual retreat to be led by religious leaders from South Sudan and elsewhere. The theme of the retreat would not be political; it would be a healing retreat to bring about personal transformation to prepare the participants to face the path of making peace’
The bishops hope that the third round of the revitalization forum of the 2015 peace deal would be a forum for leaders to resolve their personal and political interests and make peace a reality in South Sudan. That will only happen, Lukudu says, if South Sudanese leaders are ready to change their hearts and be transformed.