Pope Francis arrives to have a good time mass on the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. Francis is in South Sudan on the second leg of a six-day journey that began in Congo, hoping to carry consolation and encouragement to 2 international locations which were riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a “colonialist mentality” that has exploited Africa for hundreds of years.

Gregorio Borgia/AP

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Gregorio Borgia/AP

Pope Francis arrives to have a good time mass on the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023. Francis is in South Sudan on the second leg of a six-day journey that began in Congo, hoping to carry consolation and encouragement to 2 international locations which were riven by poverty, conflicts and what he calls a “colonialist mentality” that has exploited Africa for hundreds of years.

Gregorio Borgia/AP

JUBA, South Sudan — Pope Francis made a closing enchantment for peace in South Sudan on Sunday as he celebrated Mass earlier than tens of hundreds of individuals to shut out an uncommon mission by Christian non secular leaders to nudge ahead the nation’s restoration from civil battle.

On the final day of his African pilgrimage, Francis begged South Sudanese folks to put down their weapons and forgive each other, presiding over Mass on the nation’s monument to independence hero John Garang earlier than an estimated 100,000 folks, together with the nation’s political management.

“Even when our hearts bleed for the wrongs we have now suffered, allow us to refuse, as soon as and for all, to repay evil with evil,” Francis mentioned. “Allow us to settle for each other and love each other with sincerity and generosity, as God loves us.”

His message aimed to revive hopes on the planet’s youngest nation, which gained independence from the bulk Muslim Sudan in 2011 however has been beset by civil battle and battle.

President Salva Kiir, his longtime rival Riek Machar and different opposition teams signed a peace settlement in 2018, however the deal’s provisions, together with the formation of a nationwide unified military, stay largely unimplemented and preventing has continued to flare.

“We’ve suffered rather a lot,” mentioned Natalima Andrea, a 66-year-old mom of seven who wiped a tear from her eye as she waited for Francis’ Mass to start. “We’d like a everlasting peace now and I hope these prayers would yield to lasting peace.”

The Vatican mentioned greater than 100,000 folks attended the service, filling the sector of the Garang Mausoleum and surrounding roads.

In a bid to spur the method alongside, Francis was joined on the novel ecumenical peace mission by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields. The purpose of the Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian leaders was to push Kiir and Machar to recommit themselves to the 2018 deal.

Welby and Greenshields joined Francis on the altar at Mass on Sunday and have been to accompany him on the flight again to Rome.

The three additionally aimed to place a worldwide highlight on the plight of the nation, oil-rich and but one of many world’s poorest, the place humanitarian wants are hovering for the two million individuals who have been displaced by continued clashes and years of above-average flooding. Watchdogs’ allegations of corruption are additionally widespread; some South Sudanese upon the pope’s arrival famous that his modest automobile was overshadowed by native officers’ luxurious ones.

Nuns and clergymen attend a Holy Mass led by Pope Francis on the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023.

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Ben Curtis/AP

Nuns and clergymen attend a Holy Mass led by Pope Francis on the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023.

Ben Curtis/AP

In the course of the three-day go to, Francis, Welby and Greenshields sought to attract consideration to the plight of South Sudan’s most susceptible folks, the ladies and kids who’ve borne the brunt of displacement and make up nearly all of folks dwelling in short-term camps.

They raised particularly the plight of girls in a rustic the place sexual violence is rampant, little one brides are frequent and the maternal mortality price is the very best on the planet.

“If we have a look at South Sudan, I’d simply use one phrase: South Sudan is a patriarchal nation,” mentioned Elizabeth Nyibol Malou, a lecturer in economics on the Catholic College of South Sudan. Citing cultural norms through which wealth is handed all the way down to male heirs and ladies are married younger for dowries, she mentioned it’s a fixed wrestle to maintain women at school.

Ladies in South Sudan, she mentioned, “are drained. They’re struggling. They’re annoyed, they usually’re caught.”

Edmund Yakani, govt director of the Group Empowerment for Progress Group, mentioned the go to of the three leaders was an vital push to the peace course of.

He known as it a “vital publicity of our political leaders in direction of their private duty for making peace and stability prevail within the nation.”