The Catholic Leader - July 2

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The Catholic Leader, July 2, 2017
News
POPE Francis is first of all a shep-
herd who makes seeking out the lost
and forgotten his top priority.
But he also knows that wherever he goes, the
cameras and news coverage will follow.
He leveraged his pull on the media spotlight
early in his papacy when he went to Lampedusa
for his first trip as Pope, tossing a funeral wreath
onto the vast, unmarked cemetery known as
the Mediterranean Sea – where thousands of
migrants die each year escaping from economic
distress, political crises or persecution.
His visits to the Central African Republic,
refugee centres, prisons, homes for the elderly
and ill have all been key stops in his mission to
reach out to the neglected peripheries, encourage
those who are suffering and the hidden heroes
helping them, and wake up the world to their
presence and plight.
South Sudan was meant to be next on that list,
to red-flag the disastrous effects of civil war –
millions of people facing violence, displacement,
chronic hunger and mass starvation – and to
nudge conflicting parties toward peace.
However, mounting doubts over security and
how ready those parties may be for negotiation
have put a boots-on-the-ground papal visit on
hold.
And now some Catholic aid and development
agencies are wondering, with no pope, how does
this tragedy get on the world radar now?
“With Donald Trump, Brexit and terrorist
attacks happening in the news”, outlets that are
usually very receptive to covering humanitarian
crises and efforts “don’t have the space to cover
them”, director of communications at Caritas
Internationalis Patrick Nicholson said.
Despite the immensity of the tragedy, “it’s
really off the radar in terms of the world caring,”
he said, which is why “the Pope raising aware-
ness is absolutely crucial”.
Everybody’s efforts to get the word out is
still key, and Mr Nicholson and his Caritas
colleagues created after
a recent visit to South Sudan to better show the
human stories and lives at stake.
Associate executive director of Solidarity with
South Sudan Sr Yudith Pereira-Rico said her
organisation was promoting the hashtag #South-
SudanWeCare on social media to show
the South Sudanese people that they
would not be overlooked.
“The people there feel they
are forgotten. There is no
media attention and they
always tell us, ‘Please, don’t
forget to speak about us’,”
she said.
A member of the Con-
gregation of the Religious of
Jesus and Mary, Sr Pereira-
Rico said she had spent the past
two decades working in the poorest
parts of West Africa “and yet I’ve
never seen the poverty like there is in South
Sudan”.
“My first time in South Sudan, in Malakal, I
wasn’t able to sing ‘Hallelujah’ in church” hav-
ing seen the situation of the people.
“Now, more and more, I can see that God is
here.”
Sometimes she and her colleagues can feel so
powerless when faced with so many people in
need, “but just being there” can offer comfort,
she said.
“A challenge we have as Christians is believ-
ing in the resurrection in these situations, know-
ing that there is a good end for human history,”
she said.
Solidarity with South Sudan is an international
network of religious congregations that was
formed to train primary school teachers, health
care workers, pastoral agents and sustainable
farmers from all ethnic groups, learning toler-
ance and reconciliation along the way.
The NGOs do the emergency relief, “and we do
development, teach values”, Sr Pereira-Rico said.
The 28 nuns, priests and brothers from 20
different congregations and 20 nations
living and working together in four
different communities across
South Sudan are a living
witness of what harmony in
diversity and collaboration
looked like, she said.
“We’re like the United
Nations,” she said, and “we
show people a new model of
living”.
The local church also pro-
vided the credibility, networks
and infrastructure that relief agen-
cies needed to reach the most vulner-
able, country representative in South Sudan for
Catholic Relief Services Jerry Farrell said.
“The Church has an incredible reputation. It is
battered and weary”, like its people, but it never
shut down, it always stuck by its people, which
was partly why it was so respected, he said.
By working directly with parishes and
religious orders, like the Comboni sisters, CRS
can get food to 5000 to 6000 families in places
where no one else had access, he said.
No matter how bad things got, the Church still
was operating its schools, hospitals, clinics and
programs all over South Sudan – the facilities
may not look as nice as those in the West, “but
they work”, he said.
“Peacebuilding is quiet, but relentless,” he
said, and it often did not make for an exciting or
visual story.
Media often liked to cover things such as the
highly complex emergency airdrops to those
who were stranded, but Mr Farrell said reporters
should be looking at the Catholic schools, like
the ones run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
“It’s not visually catchy, but that’s the real
story. That’s where the future of South Sudan
lies,” he said as these schools provided basic
care, nutrition and even vegetable gardens for
the mothers to grow healthy food.
The other real story that should get coverage,
he said, were the survivors.
“The people here are incredibly resilient and
one of the main reasons for that is they go to
church,” he said and they were deeply spiritual
people.
With aid from partner agencies, the Church
became a place people went to find basic sup-
plies, safety, sanctuary and “spiritual nourish-
ment because without that, aid is just a pat on the
back”, Mr Farrell said.
“Things will be better. It will just take time
because peacebuilding is meant to help South
Sudan heal itself.”
As the Catholic, Episcopalian and Presbyte-
rian churches worked for peace from the bottom
up and the role of political leaders was to help
from the top down, he said, someday they would
all meet in the middle. CNS
Advocate: Sister Yudith Pereira-Rico.
South Sudan crisis needs media attention, government action
Under the world’s radar
Action needed: A boy from South Sudan stands next to his family’s belongings at a camp for displaced people in Lamwo, Uganda. Photos: CNS
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