“We need authentic love on our roads, in our marketplaces; Oh, we need authentic love in our classrooms; we need authentic love in social media forums; we need it in our Mosques; we need it everywhere there are human beings, where children of God gather together,” he says.
The South Sudanese Catholic Bishop continues, “Love is the cement, it’s the glue that holds our relationship together and if our relationship doesn’t hold together, how can we have community, how can we have family, how can we have a nation?”
He reflects on the double celebration of February 14 this years, saying, “Let Valentine that you celebrate this year 2024 exactly on ASH WEDNESDAY help somebody else to be a little bit more cheerful, a little bit more joyful, a little bit more hopeful.”
“Yes, love is in the air; celebrate a good valentine but make that Valentine to count,” Bishop Hiiboro further says, and implores, “Let Valentine inspire a new feeling among us; let it inspire a new sensation of togetherness among us.”
The Catholic Church leader, who has been at helm of the CDTY since his Episcopal Consecration in June 2008 looks forward to the day politicians in South Sudan “will pay attention and do something to relieve the burden of the poor or the downtrodden or the weakest of the society.”
Valentine’s Day, Bishop Hiiboro says, will be interesting “the day we see all engaging in peace-building activities and in all we do, when we talk peace, when we are just in doing justice, when we forgive and forget, when we reconcile and heal each other.”
“When love is authentic, it can conquer the greed that is destroying us; it can conquer the discrimination that is separating us. When love is authentic, it can conquer the wickedness that is destroying our beautiful country,” the 59-year-old South Sudanese Catholic Bishop says.
He implores, “May the love that is in you flow out to another, and may the love that is in you, turn the world around you into a better world.”
Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
