Message of the Comboni Family to the new South Sudan

MISSIONARI COMBONIANI DEL CUORE DI GESÙ                                       SUORE MISSIONARIE COMBONIANE
               Curia generalizia                                                                                    Curia generalizia
               Via Luigi Lilio, 80                                                                                    V.le Tito Livio, 24
               00142 Roma                                                                                          00136 Roma

Rome, July 9^th 2011

“Faithful Love and Loyalty join together,
Justice and Peace embrace.
Loyalty will spring up from the earth,
and Justice will lean down from heaven.
Yahweh will himself give prosperity,
And our soil will yield its harvest” (Psalm 85:10-12).

Dear Archbishop, Bishops, Priests, Religious Men and Women, Christian Lay Faithful and the whole people of South Sudan at large, dear Comboni Missionary Priests, Sisters and Brothers working in South Sudan,

We sons and daughters of St. Daniel Comboni, the Apostle of the Sudan, congratulate you on the occasion of the Historic Celebration of the Independence of South Sudan and the beginning of the new nation of South Sudan. It is our prayer and wish that “Justice and Peace” may embrace in South Sudan as the demanding job of building the new nation is starting.

We pray that God may continue to give all sectors of the society in South Sudan the grace of being committed for Justice, which nurtures and gives shape to all the efforts towards Reconciliation and Peace. Our wish is that the Culture of Peace and the commitment for Reconciliation, which has done its journey among the Sudanese people, may give impetus and strength for a non violent and patient search for Justice and the common good.

All of us know that Justice is the base for Peace and it grows as much as we all become more aware of the division, discrimination and lack of equality which can exist among the various components of our society and try to address the issue of equality and inter-ethnic peaceful co-existence.

God has blessed South Sudan with its Human Resources and Natural Resources. We pray so that God may continue to guide those who have the responsibility of administering these riches, so that equal distribution and just human promotion among all the inhabitants of South Sudan may be at the base of all the investments to utilise the resources of the country.

May God give South Sudan the opportunity to live in peace with all its neighbours and in a particular way with Khartoum - North Sudan. May St. Daniel Comboni, St. Bakhita and all the martyrs of this land intercede for the new nation of South Sudan and God's blessing be upon all the citizens, in the country and abroad.

Respectfully yours,

           Fr. Enrique Sánchez González, MCCJ                                                       Sr. Luzia Premoli, CMS
                       Superior General                                                                          Superior General