Crisis Turns to Confidence

Communion at a green cathedral

Tambura-Yambio, in south-west Sudan, was decimated by a 20-year civil war, which sparked a humanitarian crisis and a mass exodus of people desperate to escape the killing.

Now after more than three years of peace, Bishop Joseph Abangite Gasi said that in the last 50 years, Catholics in this region of Western Equatoria had at least trebled in number to 500,000 and now represented about a third of the total population.

Speaking from Sudan in an interview with the charity Aid to the Church in Need, the 80-year-old bishop went on to highlight the humanitarian and spiritual needs of a people fed up of poverty and wanting to usher in change.

With up to 60,000 exiles returning to the diocese since 2003, Bishop Gasi stressed the need to provide housing for former refugees who were living in tents and mud huts and who were desperate for jobs. Huge construction projects, he added, were now underway.

Now less than two months on from his golden jubilee as a priest, a bishop who has led his people through a series of catastrophes has now set as his priority building a cathedral in Yambio to seat 4,000 people.

Last month he laid the foundation stone and now he is organising the building work, bringing in supplies from as far as Uganda in a project which he reported as requiring more than one million bricks.

Until now, the faithful have had to make do with a green cathedral, meeting for Mass in the open air in crowds of up to 17,000 with only the trees providing shelter from temperatures of up to 40C and sometimes torrential rain.

He paid tribute to Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for suffering Christians, which he said had helped build chapels and churches.

The bishop said ACN had supported many of the 400 catechists at work across the diocese devoted lay faithful who have proved crucial in converting thousands to Catholicism.

Bishop Gasi said: The Catholic Church is very dynamic here. People never forget how we have stayed with them during the hardest times.

He explained that with more than 100 schools and two hospitals and further medical care for lepers and people with HIV/Aids, the Church was recognised as a key part of society.

When people gathered for the celebrations to mark my golden jubilee [as a priest] in December, we had crowds almost half of what youd expect to see at St Peters Square in Rome.

The Churchs high profile helps explain the vocations increase in a diocese where the number of priests has risen from six to 33 in 50 years.

Bishop Gasi said that in some cases, people fleeing Tambura-Yambio to strongly Muslim regions such as Khartoum had been pressured into converting to Islam but since coming home had gone back to Christianity.

I thank God often for the graces he has given to us and the Church here, said the bishop.

Bishop Gasi explained that Protestant groups were also very strong in Tambura-Yambio with increased membership.

Sudan is a priority country for Aid to the Church in Need which provides up to £1 million every year to help suffering Christians there.