SOUTH SUDAN: “Throw All the Guns that Killed Your Brothers and Make Difference” Cardinal Ameyu to Young People
His Eminence Stephen Cardinal Ameyu Martin
Ginaba Lino
South Sudan New Cardinal during his arrival from Rome on 30th October 2023, called on young people to throw away guns that killed their brothers, and sisters and make a difference to develop the country.
His Eminence Stephen Cardinal Ameyu Martin called on young people to live the love of God that unites everyone.
“I call upon the young, you are the majority, and you can make a difference, we can bring peace to this Country, throw away the guns that killed your own brothers and sister, and let us live the love of God that unites all of us.”
Cardinal Ameyu in his speech at Juba International Airport on Monday Said, time has come for young people to look at his or her own heart and forgive.
“My dear people of God, we are a nation that is regarded as a war zone because we have been fighting all these 50 years without any turning back and say let us forgive one another. Today is a chance that each and every one of us should look at his or her own heart and say my dear brother I have forgiven you from the bottom of my heart.”
His Eminence stated that they cannot build unity without love and forgiveness because it’s only forgiveness that makes the church strong.
“It’s only forgiveness that makes us mature, it’s only forgiveness that makes our Church strong. We cannot build unity without love, let us love one another and let us love each one from his own tribe as God put all the 64 tribes to this nation so we must feel it together.”
He called for working together to build up a relationship that will extend to all the people in South Sudan.
“God has given us this nation so that we can be also people who have a history, a history that has been spent in bloodshed, but now God is opening for us a new page. Together, we can work in order to build up relationships that extend to all, not only to the few.”
Cardinal Ameyu appealed to the young people and the entire people of South Sudan to work for the peace of Christ which gives the courage to tell each one “You are my brother and sister.”
“Let us work together as the governor has put already, let us work for peace, not the peace of the silence of guns, but the peace of Christ that put each one of us together and able to say to my brother, you are my brother and to say to my sister, you are my sister that is because we have one father who is God.”
He encouraged the people of South Sudan to put God in their daily lives and the country which is trying to gain lasting peace.
“In order to remember this day, the day of this warm reception, let us put God ahead of us and the Country of South Sudan for lasting peace.”
He emphasized that having a Cardinal for the first time in South Sudan is by the grace of God saying, “We are the first country after almost 11 years to have a cardinal, and it’s from the grace of God that the heart of the Holy Father who came to us here in February and sow the hope that all of us would like to live. And that hope has been brought to us by putting one of us as a Cardinal.
The Cardinal once again repeated his word which said, “The chair of the Cardinal is not for him alone,” but for all South Sudanese.
“As I said before this chair of the Cardinal is not only for Cardinal Stephen, it’s for all of us South Sudanese. It’s a sign that our church has matured, it’s no more a young Church because we have celebrated a hundred years of faith, and that faith the Holy Father has seen it.”
On Monday 30th of October 2023, thousands of Christians including government officials in South Sudan assembled at Juba International Airport to welcome his eminence Cardinal Ameyu who was elevated to the position of Cardinal by the Holy Father Pope Francis.
Pope Francis installed Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla as the first Cardinal of the Catholic Church in South Sudan on 30 September at the Vatican City. He now joins a group of 137 cardinals eligible to elect a new Pope.
