Strive to Spearhead Justice, Peace in South Sudan: Catholic Bishop to New Cardinal

Juba, 03 October, 2023 / 4:10 PM

The newly created Cardinal for South Sudan, Stephen Ameyu Martin Cardinal Mulla, is expected to play the role of spearheading Church initiatives towards justice and peace in the country, a Catholic Bishop in the East-Central African nation has said. 

In a message following the September 30 Consistory, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of South Sudan’s Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio (CDTY) congratulates the Local Ordinary of Juba Archdiocese, who was one of the three Africans created Cardinals and expresses his prayerful best wishes for him. 

“We believe that your role as a Church leader will be able to guide congregations and Churches for a just and peaceful society,” Bishop Hiiboro says in a Monday, October 2 report published by Ruru Gene newsletter of CDTY.

The South Sudanese Catholic Bishop adds, “We are confident that your spiritual leadership will promote the endeavors of the Church in South Sudan with so much to desire, its mission work, and pastoral contributions.” 

“On behalf of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, I would like to congratulate you on being elevated to Cardinal,” Bishop Hiiboro says, and goes on to thank the Holy Father “for blessing South Sudan with its first Cardinal.”

In his message, the 59-year-old South Sudanese Catholic Bishop acknowledges with appreciation the Episcopal ministry of his agemate at the helm of South Sudan’s only Metropolitan See and expresses his spiritual solidarity with him. 

Bishop Hiiboro tells the new South Sudanese Cardinal, “While we admire your contributions to the Catholic Church in South Sudan and in the Archdiocese of Juba, I would like to offer my heartfelt prayers for you.”

Bishop Hiiboro, who has been at the helm of CDTY since his Episcopal Ordination in June 2008 further says, “I pray for you in your new role for God’s empowering love, wisdom, and unity to surround you as you serve communities and deal with the challenges that the Church in South Sudan has to address.”

The first-ever Cardinal in South Sudan, the world’s newest country that gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, Cardinal Mulla is the second South Sudanese Cardinal, after the 82-year-old Gabriel Cardinal Zubeir Wako was elevated to the rank in October 2003 while serving as Archbishop of Sudan’s Khartoum Archdiocese. 

Other Cardinals from Africa that Pope Francis created during the September 30 Consistory included Protase Cardinal Rugambwa, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Tabora in Tanzania, and Stephen Cardinal Brislin, the Local Ordinary of South Africa’s Cape Town Archdiocese.