Yei and Rumbek Bishops to focus on church infrastructure at conference

The Bishops of Yei and Rumbek Dioceses have revealed a focus on infrastructure as the priority in their presentation during the bishops’ conference in Khartoum. The two church leaders are attending the conference for the first time. The Bishop of Yei Diocese Alex Lodiong Sakur says his primary responsibility is reconstruction of the diocese citing that most churches in the area were destroyed during the war “I will be focusing mainly on the reconstruction of the Diocese, rebuilding the Diocese. You know the diocese of Yei is one of the most affected in South Sudan probably following Malakal because of the war of 2016.” “Many of our Institutions of services are all broken, particularly schools and health centers. Even fathers’ house, some churches are brought down and so that will be the main thing that I will be sharing with the bishops.” Bishop Alex says evangelization is also on his agenda because some Christians are lacking sacraments. He attributed this to the limited number of priests in Diocese making it difficult to reach most places in greater Yei. “You know because the diocese has been destroyed many people are not been reached because the Diocese lack priests and they are not getting securements so this should be another thing that we will try to address. “As you know we are all together 12 diocesan priests including the bishops, myself and Bishop Emeritus Ladu Tombe.” He said he will request for missionary priests to go and help Christians in Yei Diocese. The bishop has called on his fellow Christians to pray for him as he discusses issues concerning the Diocese. Meanwhile the Bishop of Rumbek Diocese Christian Carlassare says he will present four pillars that focus on evangelization, justice and peace, education, and human development. “In the Diocese of Rumbek, we have mostly four pillars, the first pillar is Evangelization so formation of the pastoral agency, and also formation of our seminarians. Second pillar is justice and peace which is an important ministry where we want to bring together all communities within the diocese,” Bishop Carlassare said. “The third pillars is education because in the diocese we have a great investment at school level with 21 primary schools, 7 secondary schools, 3 vocational training centers, the teacher training and also now the desire to have Catholic University and the last pillar is Human development.” Carlassare says the conference is an opportunity for him to share ideas about the Diocese and the Catholic Churches in Sudan and South Sudan. He hopes to sit together with other Bishops and discuss strategies and pastoral plans He urges the people of South Sudan to pray for Unity so that the spirit of God will lead people towards a shared peaceful future. The annual bishops conference for Sudan and South Sudan will commence on Thursday this week in Khartoum.