Juba, 30 March, 2021 / 5:55 pm (ACI Africa).
Leaders of the Catholic Church in South Sudan have reached out to the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) requesting to be permitted to lead public worship during the Holy Week and Easter.
“As a representative of the Bishops (of South Sudan), we have requested from the presidency that all of us Christians who are involved in this very great moment of the season of Lent and ending up with the Holy Week be exempted from these restrictions of COVID-19,” the Catholic Archbishop of Juba Stephen Ameyu told journalists during the delivery of his Easter Message on Sunday, March 28.
The Archbishop of South Sudan’s only Metropolitan see added, “We have tabled our request to the Vice President Hussein Abdelbaggi and we hope that he will heed to our letter and we will celebrate Easter.”
Hussein Abdelbaggi is South Sudan’s Vice President for Service Cluster who doubles as the Chairperson of the National Taskforce on COVID-19.
Speaking on behalf of the Catholic Bishops in South Sudan, Archbishop Ameyu said, “We think that even without an okay from them (the government), we will have at least the celebration of Easter with a few people selected in consideration of the social distancing as we did last year with the same mood of social distancing.”
