The Catholic Church in South Sudan celebrates the first anniversary of its Ecumenical Pilgrimage for peace in South Sudan with a call for people to be the salt of the society.
The Ecumenical Pilgrimage for peace to South Sudan by the three church leaders was organized and realized under the theme, “I pray that all may be one”, taken from the book John 17.
Archbishop Hubertus van Megen challenged the people of God in South Sudan to be salt of the earth, living honest lives founded on Gospel values.
“We are all in that sense, salt of the earth as Jesus said today in the Gospel as we have been listening to it. To be salt to the earth, that is not always easy by the way, you might recall that in the old liturgy of baptism.”
“The priest could put a bit of salt on the tongue of the baby and you could see how the baby spit it out from the mouth. So to say today now you need to be the salt of the earth.”
“Salt of the Earth is about giving taste to life even more and deeper, to give sense to life and to be that sense for life, to live for others, not so much for yourself but for others; that others find taste in you, that you are that salt of the earth.”
The Apostolic Nuncio to South Sudan and Kenya emphasized the fruits of the Pope’s visit to South Sudan with the installation of Cardinal Stephen Ameyu.
The Holy Father, after he visited Juba, gave us the gift of a Cardinal, His Eminence Stephen Ameyu, as a recognition of the importance of the Church of South Sudan, “says Archbishop van Megen.”
“The elevation of Archbishop Ameyu to Cardinal was “a recognition not only by the way
of the Church as Bishops or as Priests or as Religious, but as we are all here today, people of God, because we are all part of that Church and we all have a responsibility and a commitment to that church.”
One year after the first-ever Papal visit to South Sudan, the representative of the Holy Father in the East-Central African nation highlighted the benefits of the 3-5
February 2023 Ecumenical Visit, which Pope Francis undertook alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.