The pilgrims have expressed their readiness to celebrate the 100 years of faith of Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Loa in the Western Deanery of Diocese of Torit since its installation in 1921.
Emmanuel Mude Malish, St. Francis of Assisi Nimule Parish Youth Chairperson says he is very much impressed to celebrate the centenary.
He says the celebration brought together thousands of people from different parishes within and outside South Sudan.
Mude mentions lack of space and inadequate safe clean drinking water facing the faithful who arrived in the Parish for the celebration.
“In this centenary I am really very much impress to celebrate a hundred years of faith in this Diocese of Torit, it has brought many people including those from Diaspora, it shows a kind of unity, currently we have three thousand and more people are still coming, and to this we don’t have houses for them to sleep in and put their bags, like yesterday it rained heavily, it interrupted the mass, wash people’s bags and Clothes, food items, and we only have one water point channel which is a challenge here it is not enough for the population”, he noted.
Lilly Achiro Zachariah who travelled from Juba calls on the faithful to give thanks to God for protecting people up to the Centenary celebration.
She asks for God’s mercy to continue blessing the Christians and urges believers to have faith in God.
“I am so happy because God has given me chance to celebrate these a hundred years. We give thanks to God for keeping us reach up to this day, I also ask for God’s mercy to continue blessing us. We should have faith in God, and we should not take things like fun especially what happened to our land, people ran away for almost five years because of the war. I am calling my people to come back. We should not fear. God is with us. This land belongs to us not to other people and it will be ours forever”, Achiro elaborates happily.
Another Christian Harriet Gune Pasquale who travelled from Adjumani District in Uganda says she is excited to have the long-awaited celebration which was launched in 2018.
She, who fled to Uganda during the 2016 conflict, expresses her happiness for being at home to celebrate the centenary with her people.
“It has been a long-awaited celebration since 2018, and I am so happy to be at home today, I feel I am in peace now because I have seen my home, although there are a lot of destruction, I am calling our brothers in the diaspora to come home so that we start building”.
Meanwhile Fr. Dario Modi, Parish Priest of Our Lady of Assumption Paris Loa, says the celebration started Monday after the arrival of the Centenary Cross at the parish with pilgrims from Torit, Nimule, Juba and Uganda.
He reveals that they have a plan together with Christians of the area to renovate the building of the church of Our Lady of Assumption Parish Loa.
“We have already started the celebration, in fact we received the centenary cross on Monday with the pilgrims from Uganda, Juba, Torit and Nimule, because of the war of 2016, many of them were displaced to Adjumani, Uganda, others went to the nearby areas, but because of this centenary some came. Others [refugees] have a plan of coming back because they have relative peace, we have already a plan, one of it is to be on the ground to encourage people to come back, as I was asked by the Bishop that without a priest, no one can come currently some have started cleaning, and others say they will come in dry season, and we will build the church together”, explains Fr. Modi.
The centenary celebration theme is quoted from the book of John 17:11 which says “Father may they be one as we are one”.
The speakers made their statement to Radio Emmanuel in an exclusive interview at the church compound in Loa.