Pope Francis wound up a peace mission to South Sudan on Sunday urging the people to make themselves immune to the “venom of hatred” to achieve the peace and prosperity that have eluded them through years of bloody ethnic conflicts. | Reuters
“Today I would like to thank you, because you are the salt of the earth in this country. Yet, when you consider its many wounds, the violence that increases the venom of hatred, and the injustice that causes misery and poverty, you may feel small and powerless,” he said, speaking from a large altar platform overlooking the crowd in the capital, Juba.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, leader of the global Anglican Communion, and Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, attended the Mass. “This country, so beautiful yet ravaged by violence, needs the light that each one of you has, or better, the light that each one of you is,” said Francis, who was due to return to Rome later on Sunday together with Welby and Greenshields.Ferida Modon, 72, who lost three of her children to conflict, sat at the back of the field to attend the Mass in Juba.“I want peace to come to South Sudan. Yes, I believe that his visit will change the situation. We are now tired of conflict,” she said.
Francis made another appeal for an end to the tribalism, financial wrongdoing and political cronyism at the root of many of the country’s problems.
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