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(Vatican Radio)  South Sudan's President Salva Kiir called for a National Day of Prayer for peace and forgiveness on 10 March and urged citizens to turn out in high numbers.

Renewed political tensions and violent clashes between government forces and the opposition have resulted in tens of thousands of vulnerable people fleeing their homes and their lands. A famine was recently declared in some states, and an estimated 7.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. 

Meanwhile Pope Francis has said he is studying the possibility of an ecumenical visit to war-torn South Sudan together with the leader of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Justin Welby.

On the ground, Churches of different denominations including the Catholic and Anglican Churches - which count the largest followings - are urging the people to put aside differences and commit to dialogue on nation building.

Father Michael Perry, Minister General of the Order of the Friars Minor has just returned from the South Sudanese capital Juba. He spoke to Linda Bordoni about the impact a visit by the Pope would have and explains that the Church-driven process for peacebuilding and reconciliation is firmly rooted in Sudanese soil.

Listen: 

“I think we are at a moment right now where people are certainly confronting life and death, they’re confronting hope and despair” Fr Michael Perry OFM said.

He speaks of the resilience of the South Sudanese of all religious affiliations, a resilience that is severely put to test, and of how they are still hopeful and how they are praying for a visit by the Pope at this time.

Perry highlights the importance a joint visit with the Archbishop of Canterbury would have because it would offer  “the ecumenical witness to demonstrate that we can live together even although we have differences and that we don’t necessarily share the same ethnic roots and the identical religious convictions. It would be a tremendous witness and sign of hope and an invitation to all leaders and to all people involved who have the possibility to construct a nation, for peace, a moment in which to stop and take account of what’s going on”.

The Minister General explains that the Churches in South Sudan have had an ongoing relationship since the 1960s.

It’s a relationship, he says, that has gone through different phases and ups and downs, which at this moment, is strong.          

ACTION PLAN FOR PEACE

Perry says that together, the Churches in the nation have come up with an Action Plan for Peace which has three components to it:

-    Creating neutral spaces for dialogue in which local communities can come together, talk about and begin to deal with the trauma they are undergoing in terms of conflict, displacement, famine, climate change, and then to shed the light of faith on that trauma so that they recognize they are not alone.

-    Advocacy: to try to take the message of what is coming out of these dialogues that are searching for peace and reconciliation at the local level to ‘recreate humanity’; and then to take the main points of that process and present them at an international level so that appropriate measures can be taken to help the government achieve what it has promised to do in the Constitution and what is renewed through the different processes of peace.

-    That all of this may contribute to the groundswell of desire for peace and reconciliation among the people.

Perry points out that the South Sudanese government has welcomed the Church’s Action Plan for Peace, but has also come up with its own plan for reconciliation: a National Dialogue that will be a bottom-top approach - starting within the communities and taken to the national level. So, he said, the Church’s plan is a reinforcement and an accompaniment of the government’s effort for peace building. 

“One of the beliefs being that the Church leaders, at the local levels, are the ones who have tremendous contact, and in general, because of their long-standing relationship, and because of the nature of the Sudanese  being a faith community, there’s a trust level that is there that creates the possibility of going deeper” he said.

Perry said that one of the traits of the history of Sudan and of South Sudan, as far back as the conflict in 1960, is the presence of men of the Church in accompanying peace making and trying to build trust.
 
“People of the Church were there praying with the communities, accompanying those involved in the struggle at times, praying for a peaceful solution, working for justice and searching for the conditions to bring about a permanent peace” he said.

He said the role of the Church was absolutely essential in the lead-up to 2011 and the founding of the new nation.

Even on an international level, he stressed, the Church in the United States, for example, was present throughout the whole peace process with ecumenical partners and deep involvement.

THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH AND ITS LINK WITH THE PEOPLE

Perry also speaks of the work the United Nations is doing on the ground and about how it is searching to respond to the crisis, to encourage the government and everyone on the ground to try and stabilize the situation and to eventually help the people to return to their homes and to their lives, although he points out, climate change is currently having a huge impact on the crisis situation as well. 

He talks of how the deeply religious people of South Sudan  are resilient and continue to be hopeful but of how they are now prey of what he calls “existential exhaustion” deriving from the endless difficulties they continue to face as “every time they have to run they lose everything”.

It is a moment, he said, in which “every effort must be made to arrive at a sustainable peace that is just, that is human, that gives dignity to people and that will guarantee the rights for all people to participate in this new experiment which is South Sudan.”     

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Vatican City, Mar 13, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- She begged and scrounged for food in the forest; she drank water from a stream with dead bodies in it; she wrapped grass on her feet in order to walk long distances in the hot sun in order to survive, facing starvation and malnourishment, all before the age of six.

Now, Mirreille Twayigira is a licensed medical doctor hoping not just to save lives, but to inspire young women worldwide – particularly those in her same situation – by showing them there's hope, and that life is more than the tragedies they face.

While some might label her life “a tragic story” due to the suffering and loss she faced as a young child, Twayigira said others might choose to call it “a story of courage and perseverance.”

However, “I choose to call it a story of hope, a story of God...from ashes to beauty, (like) a beautiful stained glass window.”

Twayigira was among several speakers at the March 8 Voices of Faith women's gathering in the Vatican, marking International Women's Day.

First held in 2014, the VoF conference was established in response to Pope Francis' call to “broaden the space within the Church for a more incisive feminine presence.”

Gathering women from around the world, this year's VoF took place at the Vatican's Casina Pio IV, headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, and featured testimonies of women from around the world, including Syria and Burundi, who shared their stories of perseverance, highlighting the importance of building peace in a world filled with conflict.

In her testimony, Twayigira noted that when war broke out between Tutsis and members of the Hutu majority the government, leading to mass killings of the Tutsi tribe, she was just three years-old.

Although she doesn't remember much about the war itself when it started, she remembers the day she got the news that her father had been killed.

“I remember being told that my father had been killed, his body being brought home wrapped in this blue tent,” she said, noting that she was too young to fully understand what was happening on the day of his burial.

Before the war, “we were a big, happy family. Our house was next to our grandparent's house, so my sister and I used to spend our days with uncles and aunts...so it was a beautiful and happy childhood,” she said.

After her father's death, however, this changed dramatically.

“My family knew that it was no longer safe for us, so they had to pack and leave,” she said, explaining that at first, they fled to another district of Rwanda, thinking they would be safe.

However, after just a short time her younger sister, who was just one-year-old at the time, got sick and, because her family didn’t have access to medicine or proper nourishment due to the war, she passed away.

After her sister’s death – which marked the second time she had lost a sibling, since an older sister had died before Twayigira was born – the family fled through Burundi to a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“In the camp I was a very happy kid,” she said, “but this all ended when I encountered more loss.”

While in the camp, her mother fell ill and “one night she was gone.” However, Twayigira said that despite the tragic death of her mother, “life had to go move on,” so she and her grandparents continued to move forward.

But just two years later, in 1996, they had to leave because of war in the DRC, which is when “I began to experience a life that is unimaginable,” she said, recalling how she had her grandparents fled the camp with bullets flying over their heads, and took refuge in the forest.

“We only survived by begging for food,” she said. Her grandparents begged from locals in nearby villages, and at times were given moldy bread to eat. When begging wasn’t enough, “we even had to eat roots from the forest.”

“I remember sometimes we had to drink water from rivers with dead bodies floating in it,” she said, noting that their situation had become one of the “survival of the fittest.”

They had long distances to walk going from village to village and in search of another camp, many times walking on rough terrain. When the weather was too hot for their bare feet, they bunched up grass and tied it to their feet in order to be able to walk.

“We escaped death from so many things: from hunger, bullets, drowning, wild animals, you name it. No child should go through what I went through. In fact, nobody should go through what I went through,” she said.

Eventually the family made their way to another refugee camp, “but life would not be better there,” she said. While there were some soldiers protecting them, they would take young boys and train them to fight, and would take girls either as companions for the night or, at times, as wives.

Most of the boys leave refugee camps “with some sort of trauma,” she said, noting that when it came to the girls, some got pregnant, and others were made to be servants.

“The only reason I survived this is because I was very little,” Twayigira said. Due to the ongoing war, she and her grandparents traveled to nearby Angola before eventually ending up back in the DRC for a period of time.

However, with no improvement to the situation and no end to the war in sight, they again made their way to Angola for the second time. But when they arrived, “my grandma was very tired, and as for me, I was very malnourished.”

“You can imagine a big tummy and thin brown hair, and swollen cheeks and feet,” she said, describing herself as a young girl.

Twayigira recalled that her grandmother died shortly before they reached the refugee camp in Angola, and that had they not arrived when they did, “I was also almost gone.”

With just the two of them left, Twayigira explained that her grandfather eventually decided to travel to a different refugee camp in Zambia, because he heard they had a better school.

Despite such a long journey and so much loss, her grandfather moved again for no other reason “than to give his granddaughter a better education,” Twayigira said. She recalled that her grandfather “really believed in me so much. He never once said, 'she's just a girl, let me not waste my time on her.'”

After spending a few years in Zambia, the pair decided to make yet one more move, this time heading to a camp in Malawi that had better living conditions and even better schools. They arrived in September 2000.

Twayigira immediately enrolled in school once she arrived, making several new friends and, for the first time since they had left, was happy to have adequate food and shelter.

Being able to do well in her classes “would give me joy. Because at least I got to make some people proud, and I was very happy,” she said. Twayigira was eventually selected to join a Jesuit-run school, with all fees paid for by the Jesuit Refugee Service.

When she finished school in 2007, Twayigira's grandfather fell ill, passing away just a few days after.

“I cried uncontrollably, badly, but life had to go on, and although I was in so much pain with the loss of my loved ones, it did not stop me from working hard,” she said, “because I knew that my future, it was not certain, I did not know what my future had, but I knew that my hard work would pay off.”

In 2009 she studied for the national final exam in Malawi, and finished among the top 6 students in the country. At the awards ceremony, the Chinese embassy offered a number of full-ride scholarships to study in China for the top students.

Twayigira was one of the students selected and, despite being a refugee with no citizenship status or passport, was able to get her paperwork in order with the help of the Jesuits at her school, a Catholic radio station and even the Malawian parliament.

She then moved to China and studied the language for a year before officially beginning classes in Chinese. She has since graduated and is currently working as a medical intern in Malawi.

While there were many times she wanted to give up along the way, Twayigira said she persisted, because at a certain point she realized that “God spared my life” not to keep it for herself, but because “there are people that I was meant to serve.”

“Before I went to China, I used to think I was just this girl with a tragic past...but when I got to China I realized that I’ve got a story to tell; a story of God and his love, a story that can change somebody’s life.”

As a doctor, Twayigira said she feels she can give even more. But in addition to her medical duties, she also looks for opportunities to speak in schools to try and “raise hope among the youth, especially refugee youth.”

She said that in the future, she hopes to work more directly with refugees, “because I believe I have a lot to share, having gone through what they’ve gone through.”

“Now this is my story...but unfortunately for many, theirs is just in the tragedy part,” she said, explaining that many refugee children don’t even have access to adequate housing let alone higher education.

Even those who do get a good education don’t necessarily have the same opportunities, Twayigira said, so “their hopes are just crushed.”

In order to change the situation, she said war itself has to end: “why not end all this violence, and I’m not talking about people from other countries coming in to invade our own countries, I mean why wait for an outsider to come to stop hurting, and killing?”

“Is the money or power at the expense of their blood really worth it? I don’t think so,” she said, adding that the only way to really resolve conflict is with “forgiveness, mercy and love.”

“Is there such humanity in us, or have we become robots?” she asked. “What is happening to innocent kids is completely unfair, and it needs to stop and I believe it starts from within us: from love, forgiveness and mercy.”

People in situations similar to hers need to know “that they are loved by God and people around them. They need to know that they matter, that there is hope for them, that they have a purpose in life,” she said, noting that this stems not only from having the basic needs met, but above all from education.

In an interview with CNA after her talk, Twayigira stressed the importance of education, saying it’s “really the key to everything, because if not educated, many girls don’t even know their value.”

However, with a good education women learn that “okay, I’m not worthless and someone can’t just come and step on my foot. I am somebody,” she said, adding that a proper education helps women to step into decision making positions where they can change things.

“I believe that once a girl is educated, that means you’re actually educating the whole family. Because a woman, you raise your children, they’re with you all the time, you know that whatever they get is what you teach them,” she said.

“So if a woman is educated that means the whole family will get quality advice from their mothers. So educating a girl is actually educating the whole country.”

Twayigira said she was happy to be able to speak at the Vatican, since the event was streamed live. She voiced her hope that people can hear her story “and not just feel sorry for me, but also see ways they can help other people like me to get a better education or a safe place, or open their homes to refugees like me.”

She said she also hopes other young women and girls from around the world will be able to see and hear her story, and to know that “it’s all possible...I believe that I’m a pillar of hope for them.”

She said one of her hopes coming out of the conference is not only to encourage young women in her situation to have hope, but also that the people who have the power and resources to change things will see that they “can actually do something under-privileged people like I was.”

“Their actions can change somebody’s life for the better, never to be the same,” she said.

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(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis visited the Roman parish of St. Magdalene of Canossa on Sunday afternoon, meeting with young people and the sick and elderly before celebrating Mass with the parish community.

Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:

His visit began with a conversation with the children and young adolescents of the parish in the parish sports field.

The Holy Father also met with parents and newborns baptized during the course of the year and with the elderly and sick of the parish in the parish hall.

In off-the-cuff remarks, he told the infirm and elderly that “sickness is a Cross – as you well know – but the Cross is always a seed of life and by carrying it well you are able to give so much life to many people, even without knowing it. Then in Heaven, it will become known. Thank you, he said, for carrying your infirmity in this way.”

Pope Francis then met with parishioners active in faith formation and pastoral outreach before celebrating the Sacrament of Penance with several people.

The Pope’s visit concluded with the celebration of Mass in the parish church.

In his homily, he reflected on the day’s Gospel reading, which recounts Jesus’ Transfiguration.

He spoke of the “two faces of Jesus”, one “brilliant in the Transfiguration” and the other face of his Passion and Crucifixion, when “he was made sin for us” (cfr 2 Cor 5,21).

Pope Francis said that, in this Lenten Season, the Church “is on the path towards Easter, towards the Resurrection. With the confidence of the Transfiguration we go forward, he said, seeing this brilliant, beautiful face, which is the same face as the Resurrection and the same we will find in Heaven.”

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(Vatican Radio)  The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is to hold a global seminar at the Pontifical Gregorian University on safeguarding children.

The event, entitled 'Safeguarding in Homes and Schools: Learning from Experience Worldwide', takes place on 23 March and is organized in collaboration with the Centre for Child Protection of the Gregorian University.

It is to have a particular focus on Latin America.

Chaired by the Commission's President, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap, guest speakers from Argentina, Colombia and Mexico will be joined by experts from Australia and Italy to share their experience of promoting a culture of safeguarding in Catholic schools, institutions and communities.

A communiqué from the Commission says the event will look at "the urgent need for research in this area" and will host experts from the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Salesian University, and the Pontifical Faculty for Education Science Auxilium.

Please find below the full communiqué:

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors [PCPM], in collaboration with the Centre for Child Protection of the Pontifical Gregorian University, is hosting a global seminar on safeguarding and education, with a particular focus on Latin America.  

Guest speakers from Argentina, Colombia and Mexico will be joined by experts from Australia and Italy to share their experience of promoting a culture of safeguarding in Catholic schools, institutions and communities.  

A round table discussion with the participation of experts from the Pontifical Gregorian University; the Pontifical Salesian University; and the Pontifical Faculty for Education Science Auxilium will address the urgent need for research in this area.

Participants will also hear from the Under-Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education will also address the seminar and take part in discussions.

The event will take place in the Aula Magna of the University on 23 March 2017, and will be chaired by Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap, and President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Education is key

The PCPM has identified education as a core element of its work.  In every part of the Church – parishes, dioceses, schools, homes, communities, seminaries, religious congregations and the Holy See itself – people need to understand:

- the risks to children and vulnerable adults
- how to recognise the warning signs of abuse
- how to educate children and vulnerable adults to protect themselves and find help when they need it
- how to create safe environments in the church and communities to prevent abuse

The PCPM is engaged on a wide range of work to promote and support education of Church leaders and all other areas of the Church’s work with children and vulnerable adults.

The education seminar will bring together experts from schools, child safeguarding, psychology and education science, as well as practitioners and students, to share and learn from information and experience on what works and what doesn’t.  The outcome will form the basis of the PCPM’s future plans for research and education programmes.

The speakers are:

Fr Friedrich Bechina, FSO, Undersecretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education

Kathleen McCormack, Member of the Commission and Chair of the Working Group on Education of Families and Communities

Lic Alexandro Aldape Barrios, Consejo Nacional de Educación Privada, México

Fr Wilfredo Grajales Rosas, SDB – Director del Instituto Distrital para la Protección de Niños, Niñas, Adolescentes y Jóvenes, Bogotá, Colombia

H. Juan Ignacio Fuentes, Provincia Marista Cruz del Sur, Argentina

Francis Sullivan, CEO, Truth Justice and Healing Commission, Australia

Dott. Giovanni Ippolito, Direttore Tecnico Capo Psicologo, Questura di Foggia

Fr Hans Zollner SJ, President, Centre for Child Protection, Pontificia Università Gregoriana and Member of the Commission

Sr Prof.ssa Giuseppina del Core, Preside, Pontificia Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione Auxilium

Fr Prof Mario Oscar Llanos SDB, Università Pontificia Salesiana

“We can never have enough education”

Kathleen McCormack, the Chair of the PCPM’s Working Group on Education in Schools and Families, said:

“In the Church we have volunteers, employees, educators and clergy; and of course we need to reach out to families and children themselves. We want people to understand about how to create safe environments and prevent sexual abuse.

“We in the Pontifical Commission want to get this debate going, and provide leadership on how we educate all those people who are in different countries and cultures, but are still part of the Universal Church.  We want to make sure that all their people who are in their communities or dioceses are fully on board with making the Church a safe place.”

Background

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was created by Pope Francis in March of 2014. The Chirograph of His Holiness Pope Francis states specifically, “The Commission’s specific task is to propose to me the most opportune initiatives for protecting minors and vulnerable adults, in order that we may do everything possible to ensure that crimes such as those which have occurred are no longer repeated in the Church. The Commission is to promote local responsibility in the particular Churches, uniting their efforts to those of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the protection of all children and vulnerable adults.”

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