On 1 December 2022, officials of the Holy See Press Office confirmed that the previously postponed trip to two-African-nation had been rescheduled.
In his first leg of the two-African-nation trip, the Holy Father will first travel to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he will meet with the country’s authorities, victims of the conflict in the Eastern part of the country and representatives of charitable organizations, celebrate Holy Mass, meet with young people, Catholic Bishops, and Jesuits in DRC.
Pope Francis is to proceed to South Sudan’s capital city, Juba, for what the Vatican described as “Ecumenical Pilgrimage of Peace in South Sudan”, to be undertaken by the Holy Father, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields from February 3-5.
In his address to journalists on January, the Governor of South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State urged those involved in the preparations for the ecumenical visit to “continue with extra strength to complete the pending tasks for this ecumenical visit,”
He encouraged South Sudanese “to come in large numbers on the streets of Juba on February 3 to receive these great religious prelates with joy and happiness.”
“The Holy Father is visiting us with messages that will bring peace and reconciliation among us because this is something the country has been yearning for all this time,” Governor Adil told journalists in Juba.
He added, “We have to prepare ourselves and our hearts to receive the blessing from these Church Prelates.”
Patrick Juma Wani is a South Sudanese journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. Patrick holds a Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Makerere Institute for Social Development (MISD) in Uganda. He has over 7 years of extensive experience in leading the development and implementation of media, advocacy, communication and multimedia strategy and operations, with an excellent track record of editorial leadership, budget management, and stakeholder outreach. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.
