US Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich Church leaders in South Sudan and Congo wonder if they have laboured in vain because too often their own people are waging war against each other, a Sudanese priest said during a meeting of hundreds of men and women from dozens of religious orders.
The root of the conflict, Fr Maurice Ibiko said, is “the wrong answer to the question, ‘who is my neighbour?’”
The clergy gathered at Rome’s Pontifical Urbanianum University to share their experiences of living and ministering in South Sudan and Congo.
The event was a follow-up to a Papal-led prayer service for peace in the two countries in November. The international unions of superiors general of women’s and men’s religious orders, Caritas Internationalis and the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development were sponsors.
Callista Gingrich, US ambassador to the Holy See, spoke briefly at the event, pledging the US government’s support for peace and the upholding of human rights in the two countries.
For most of the speakers at the event, the Church’s key contribution to peace must be education, formally in classrooms, but also in being models of how men and women from different nations and ethnic groups can live together in peace and build community.