“The mission of Lomin was already in the process of being handed over to the Diocese for other Sisters to come to replace us because we were having a serious problem of personnel,” Sr. Martinelli further said.
With the closure of the CMS community in Yei Diocese, Sr. Martinelli said the Congregation commissioned members to serve South Sudanese, who had fled to neighboring Uganda at the Palorinya refugee settlement.
“The missionary Sisters settled in Palorinya, which is in the (Parish) of Moyo in Uganda in order to be near to the South Sudanese who ran there,” the Provincial Superior of CMS in South Sudan since 2017 said about the Catholic Parish of Uganda’s Arua Diocese.
Asked about the possibility of recommissioning CMS members to the mission in Yei, Sr. Martinelli was categorical, “We don’t have more members to carry on that mission.”
“The harvest is very plentiful but the workers are very few. It would be an appeal for girls that feel something inside their hearts that they have to serve God not to silence this voice but to be open to Religious vocations,” the CMS Provincial Superior in South Sudan told ACI Africa during the September 6 interview.
She acknowledged with appreciation the ministry of the CMS members in South Sudan, who are providing services in five of the seven Catholic Dioceses of the world’s newest country.
"In South Sudan, we have six communities; we have here in Juba, Cueibet in Rumbek Diocese, in Wau Diocese, Nzara in the Diocese of Tombura -Yambio, Malakal ,and Renk in the Diocese of Malakal," Sr. Martinelli said.
In a September 1 interview with ACI Africa, Bishop Alex Lodiong Sakor of Yei Diocese lamented, “We are very few; the Clergy are very few. The missionaries who were working with us are no longer there because they fear for their lives; some of them went and joined the refugees in Uganda; some returned to their headquarters.”
Bishop Lodiong highlighted other challenges in his Episcopal See occasioned by violent conflicts in Yei from 2016, including vandalism of church property and infrastructure, high living standards, and low income, but added, “The faith is very strong, thank God; it is faith that is sustaining people amidst these social, economic, and political problems in the area of the Diocese.”
Kerbino Kuel Deng is a South Sudanese journalist who is passionate about Church communication. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.
