SOUTH SUDAN: Yei Catholic Diocese Seeks Over $14 Million to Implement New Strategic Plan
Bishop and government official posing for photo during the launching of the strategic plan
Ginaba Lino
The Catholic Diocese of Yei has on Thursday, December 14, 2023, launched its new strategic plan for 2024/2028 which requires an amount of $14,665,231 US Dollars for the strategic plans to be implemented.
The purpose of the 5 years strategic plan is to enrich the Christian community with an inclusive service to build their faith and commitment in Christ at the Catholic Diocese of Yei.
The new strategic plan also aims to expand evangelization and pastoral services, increasing access to basic social services to the community, strengthening and developing institutional structures of the Diocese.
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Yei Rt. Rev. Alex Lodiong Sakor stated that they are not just launching a document, but their commitment to make sure that the plan is done in practice.
“We are not just launching the document, but we are launching our commitment to make sure that what we have learned is realized, and I want to say from the very beginning I have been always optimistic and I’m quite sure this strategic will succeed.”
Bishop Lodiong Says, they will make sure that Yei Diocese start implementing the strategic plan, and the partners will come when they are doing their part.
“One point I will bring to your attention is, we are going to start it ourselves, and our partners will come to support us when we are already implementing the strategic plan.”
Bishop Alex discouraged the mindset of people who say that the Catholic Church gets its money from Rome. Instead, he emphasized that the money comes from the poor people of God like the South Sudanese themselves.
“Somebody mentioned here that in the past, the Catholic Church gets money from Rome but I want to clarify this to you today. When the missionaries were coming to us, they came with their own money. That is why people think that up to today money comes from Rome, but do you know how that money was coming? The money was coming from people like you, poor people like you. So, we need to work hard to make sure that we implement our strategic plan.”
The prelate believes that the people of South Sudan can do what other countries are doing and implement the strategic plan.
“We ourselves we can do it and I’m quite sure our people are willing to do it. Don’t say I’m poor therefore I can’t contribute, because you have the potential to give something.”
He added that the people of South Sudan and Church should stand and walk together to avoid waiting for donors all the time.
Bishop Ladiong narrated that the Catholic Diocese of Yei will try it’s best to raise money to implement the strategic plan through the resources that the Diocese having.
“From the very beginning I said any activities that we are going to carry out in the Diocese, we are going to use our own resources. This time we are not going out to hire resource persons, we have our experts among us.”
“Committees are going to be formed to help us move, particularly concerning resource mobilization, “said Bishop Alex.”
He stressed that resources mobilization is very important because if the resources are not there, the strategic plan will not succeed.”
The Bishop thanks the people who have already started giving their contributions since from the day of launching the strategic plan.
He called on the people of Yei and South Sudan at large, to work together towards the implementation of the plan to benefit the Community.
According to the Catholic Diocese of Yei, (CDoY), the strategic plan will focus on guiding the people to join vocation and promote evangelization and to install sacramental life among the Christians in the Diocese.
The Diocese will also focus on the well-being of the Christians through humanitarian support, recovery and development interventions which include access to quality education to eradicate illiteracy, provision of health care services, economic empowerment to contribute to poverty reduction, environmental protection, and gender equality among others.
