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.
Two years after independence, South Sudan plunged into a civil war that killed 400,000 people. Despite a 2018 peace deal between the two main antagonists,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.
Jesilen Gaba, 42, a widow with four children, said: "The fact that the three Churches united for the sake of South Sudan, this is the turning point for peace. I want the visit to be a blessing to us. We have been at war, we have lost many people."
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