JUBA, DECEMBER 6, 2016 (CISA) – Bishop Paride Taban, emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of Torit has urged the elders to remind the younger generation how they once had lived in peace and harmony regardless of tribe.
“South Sudanese were never so much tribalistic during my youth. We are dying because we are not sincere with each other,” said the bishop while speaking to Jieng Council of Elders on November 29.
According to the Catholic Radio Network the bishop urged the South Sudanese must learn to internalize the 20 words and eight phrases of peace in order to restore permanent peace in the country.
“The words are: Love, joy, peace, patience, compassion, sympathy, kindness, truthfulness, gentleness, self-control, humility, poverty, forgiveness, mercy, friendship, trust, unity, purity, faith and hope,” said Bishop Taban.
“The phrases are 20, and the eight phrases are: I love you, I miss you, I thank you, I forgive, we forget, together, I am wrong, I am sorry,” Vatican Radio quoted Bishop Taban as saying December 5.
“It is only by internalizing these words can permanent peace return to South Sudan,” added the prelate.
The winner of the 2013 UN’s Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize was echoing a message he has been preaching since the conflict began in 2013.
In 1999, Bishop Emeritus Taban started the Holy Trinity Peace Village in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state.
The project, which initially began as a demonstration farm later expanded in 2004, to become a village where people from different tribes, nations and religions live and work together.
