SOUTH SUDAN: Bishop Taban Celebrates Golden Jubilee

Information received from South Sudan said the Catholic
Archbishop of Juba Paolino Lukudu Loro invites all priests, religious and
faithful to join Bishop Taban in praising God for giving him grace for serving
for 50 years. “Let us join him in thanking God for his call and commitment,”
said Archbishop Lukudu.

He explained that Bishop Taban will preside over the
thanksgiving Eucharistic celebrations at St Theresa’s Cathedral Kator on
Saturday at 9:00 AM. Archbishop Lukudu calls on all religious leaders and faithful
to colour the occasion with gifts to Bishop Taban.

Bishop Paride Taban was ordained as a priest on 24th May
1964 and appointed as the Rector of the Minor Seminary in Okaru in 1966, following the closing of the Seminary he moved to Juba and
opened a new Minor Seminary there in 1967. Starting in 1969 during the civil
war, he became a parish priest in Torit mission. In 1980, he was appointed a
Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Juba in February 1980. He was
consecrated a Bishop in Kinshasa, Zaire (Now
Congo Democratic) by Pope John Paul II 4th May 1980.

In 1983, he was appointed the first Bishop of Torit. He
retired from the Administration of the Catholic Diocese of Torit, when the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the SPLM/SPLA and the Government of the
Sudan was being reached in Naivasha in Kenya.

After his retirement in 2004, he moved from Torit to a
remote area in the Sudan and in 2005 founded the Holy Trinity Peace Village
Kuron, a place where people of different ethnicities and faiths live together.
Taban calls the village a “small oasis of peace” in a country torn by ethnic
and religious violence and hopes “to make Sudan a nation where people live as
brothers and sisters, different religions living as people of God.”

The UN Secretary
General Ban Ki Moon gave Bishop Paride Taban the United Nation’s most
prestigious humanitarian award of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize on March
2013

Bishop Taban founded the New Sudan Council of Churches
(NSCC), an organization comprised of representatives from the Catholic,
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, African Inland, Sudan Pentecostal and Sudan
Interior Churches. The group sought to facilitate peace negotiations among the
warring factions.

Meanwhile, South Sudan Democratic Movement/ Army or
SSDM/A Cobra Faction leader who was staging war in Pibor County of Jonglei
State, David YauYau arrived Juba on Tuesday amidst tight security, signifying
the end of conflict between the government and his group the Cobra Faction.

His decision to end “arm struggle”  came about after Church Leaders Mediation
Initiative headed by Bishop Paride Taban who worked tirelessly to bring the
group back on track for dialogue. Commenting on the return of General Yau Yau, Bishop
Taban said that David Yau Yau finally realized that conflicts in the country
can be resolved peacefully.

David Yau Yau told journalists shortly after his arrival
in Juba that the peaceful resolution was only possible because of Church
Leaders Mediation who believed that conflicts in the country could only be
resolved peacefully.

General Yau Yau said that there is nothing impossible in
implementing terms of their agreement with the government and that they would
join the other stakeholders to resolve the current political crisis peacefully.

The Advisor to the President Mr. Akot Lual said it was
unbelievable that General David Yau Yau would return to Juba from Pibor jungle,
describing his arrival as a very great day.

He added that General Yau Yau would join the government
to resolve more conflicts engulfing the country.

 

SOURCE: CRN and AMECEA Social
Communications