SOUTH SUDAN: Bishop Ameyu Urges Church to Support Evangelizers

TORIT, JANUARY 15, 2019 (CISA)-Rt. Rev. Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla Bishop-Elect of the Catholic Diocese of Torit has called on the Church to empower and support all its agents of evangelization.

“To secure the success of evangelization we must have strong foundations. Agents of evangelization have to be empowered, cared for and maintained continuously so that they can deliver services properly in any assignments given them,” he said January 3 in his acceptance speech.

He said that the task of new evangelization proposed by Popes Francis and Benedict XVI, falls on all and must rely on pastoral agents who include bishops, priests, Religious men and women, catechists and lay faithful.

The Bishop-elect pledged to work in solidarity with the priests and faithful of Torit Diocese, to participate actively in the task of new evangelization of the world as proposed by Popes Francis and Benedict XVI.

“I have accepted to be bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Torit to show my obedient to Christ and his Vicar in Rome. It is a heavy Cross but I am always convinced that Christ is often with us until the end of times,” he said concerning his January 3 2019 appointment.

“It is not easy to be a sign of Christ present among the people of God in places like Torit Diocese but with the grace of God, what Christ started He will bring it to completion. We will build our communion and priesthood together and we will care for one another so that we can serve the poor and the wounded Church,” he added.

He thanked his predecessors Rt. Rev. Taban Paride and the Late Rt. Rev. Akio Johnson Mutek who passed on in 2013 as well as the Msgr. Thomas Oliha who has been the Apostolic Administrator of Torit Diocese until his appointment. He said that without them, “The Church in the Diocese would not be what it is today; we are a maturing Church.”