Help “form new habit of mind” to end Cycle of Violence, Apostolic Nuncio Urges Catholic Bishops in Sudan, South Sudan

Malakal, 12 November, 2025 / 9:19 PM

The Apostolic Nuncio in South Sudan has encouraged members of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SSS-CBC) to help the people of God under their pastoral care form “a new habit of mind” that would break the cycle of violence responsible for “death and displacement” in the two neighbouring countries.

In his Tuesday, November 11 address at the ongoing SSS-CBC Plenary Assembly taking place in South Sudan’s Malakal Catholic Diocese, Archbishop Séamus Patrick Horgan underscored the Church’s mission to remain steadfast in the pursuit of peace and reconciliation.

The Church, Archbishop Horgan said, must continue “to work for peace and for the silencing of the weapons of war.”

“There is a need to form a new habit of mind that does not see the gun as a solution to disagreement or as the only means of obtaining influence or a share of the country’s riches,” he emphasized.

The first-ever resident Vatican diplomat in South Sudan lamented the perception “that one must take up arms in order to get a share of the cake,” describing it as “a grave problem” among the people of God in Sudan and South Sudan.

Referring to the two neighbouring countries that separated in July 2011, Archbishop Horgan noted that “while South Sudan is witnessing a deterioration this year, our brothers in the north remain held hostage in a cruel and protracted conflict.”

“This is the sobering context in which we minister and preach the Word of God – a Word, after all, of peace and reconciliation,” he said, recalling his September visit to Catholic communities in the Archdiocese of Khartoum as an experience that gave him firsthand “insight into the extraordinary challenges facing our brothers in Sudan and the urgent need to pray for a peaceful solution to that cruel war.”

He urged SSS-CBC members to remain committed to breaking the cycle of violence that “leaves too many of our people frightened and separated from their homes and their land.”

“As St. Paul says, we remain preachers of God’s Word in season and out of season. In the present season in our countries, that preaching of the Gospel is ever necessary and ever powerful,” said the 56-year-old Vatican diplomat.

He added, “One often has the sentiment in our countries that people refuse to hear. Nonetheless, our task as Bishops is to continue to give our testimony on behalf of the moral and revealed law.”

“This message we deliver is God’s own revelation of Himself. In its essentials it is unchanged and unchanging, and it offers humanity the only true recipe for happiness in this life and in the next,” Archbishop Horgan said during his November 11 address in Malakal.

The previous day, the President of the SSS-CBC, Stephen Cardinal Ameyu raised alarm over the “humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale” in Sudan and South Sudan.

In his opening remarks during the official opening of the SSS-CBC Plenary Assembly, Cardinal Ameyu underscored the need for Catholic leaders to strengthen unity, foster non-violence, and reinforce pastoral structures as the Church responds to the plight of the people of God in both countries.

“The people of Sudan and South Sudan are enduring profound suffering, displacement, loss of life, destruction of churches and properties, and a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale,” the Local Ordinary of Juba Catholic Archdiocese said.

He acknowledged with appreciation the spirit of endurance among the Sudanese people, saying, “Amidst these trials, the Dioceses have demonstrated resilience, providing shelters, food, and spiritual care through charities and other agencies.”

Meanwhile, citing Pope Leo XIV’s first Apostolic Exhortation on love for the poor, Dilexi Te, issued in Rome on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Apostolic Nuncio in South Sudan cautioned SSS-CBC members against rising inequality in contemporary society, noting that “in reality, the worst discrimination the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care.”

“We paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people,” Archbishop Horgan said, and posed, “Does this sentence from Delexi Te describe the situation in our own country?”

He further queried, “Might the existence and acceptance of such blatant inequality seep into the Church too and influence our mentality? The Church, in this context, must make a different choice and take a different path.”

The Irish-born Vatican diplomat recalled that Pope Leo XIV reminds us that “God has a special place in His heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and He asks us, His Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favour of the weakest.”

“Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into privileged and preferential religious care. Dear colleagues, I leave it to you to read the exhortation fully and carefully. I believe it speaks powerfully to us in our current context and time,” he said referring to Dilexi Te.