SUDAN, SOUTH SUDAN: Yei, Rumbek Bishops Present Plans on Restructuring Dioceses as a Priority During Bishops’ Conference in Khartoum
Ginaba Lino
The two Bishops of Yei and Rumbek Diocese who have attended the Conference for the first time said, on 18th October 2022, that their first priority is restructuring of their dioceses as new Bishops.
Bishop Alex Lodiong Sakur stated that he will focus mainly on reconstruction of the diocese because it has been the most affected diocese during the conflict of 2016, following Malakal.
“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, so 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.”
He explained that, for the Diocese to come back to its image like before needs much work because the County is under insecurity.
“The Diocese of Yei, for it to come back we need to reconstruct, which is not going to be an easy thing to do because as we speak now still there is insecurity in the Diocese of Yei.”
Alex says he will also focus on Evangelization because most of Christians are lacking sacraments due to few Number of priests in Diocese making it difficult to reach Christians across 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.”
One of the things we are going to do is to request for Missionary priests to come and in the Diocese of Yei, Alex added.”
He said, his expectation from the Bishops’ Conference is to share experiences from different Dioceses and see how they can address some pastoral concerns.
“My expectation from the conference will be sharing the different experiences in the Dioceses and see how we can address some the pastoral concerns and even political, and social concerns.”
The Bishop calls on his Christians to stay in peace, Unite and pray for him has he going to discuss issues concerning the Diocese.
Meanwhile, Bishop of Rumbek Diocese Christian Carlassare also says, he will present four (4) pillars that focus on evangelization, justice and peace, education, and Human development.
“In the Diocese of Rumbek we have mostly four (4) 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.”
“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 said, it will be an opportunity for him for the first time as the bishop of Rumbek to share ideas of the Diocese and the Catholic Churches in Sudan and South Sudan.
He adds that his expectation is to sit together has Bishops and discuss the strategies and the pastoral plan that they need to propose all together to prioritize evangelization in the Country.
He urges the people of South Sudan to pray for Unity so that spirit of God lead people towards future of peace consultation and common.
The Sudan and South Sudan Bishops’ conference commenced on Wednesday 19 October 2022, and end on 26 October 2022 at Khartoum Sudan.
