It is hoped that the war is truly over and that the new Republic of South Sudan, as desired by an overwhelming majority of its inhabitants, can start a new history in peace,” said the Holy See’s spokesman on the eve of the birth of the world’s newest state. Commenting in his weekly television programme’ Octava Dies’, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said that representatives of Pope Benedict XVI will join the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, many heads of state and bishops from several countries in Juba, South Sudan, on Saturday, July 9, for the proclamation of the independence of South Sudan. Southerners voted to secede from the Arab-dominated north in a January referendum that was promised in a 2005 peace deal ending 5 decades of north-south civil war that cost two million lives. The Vatican spokesman said that it will be one of the poorest countries in the world, and it will have to face very difficult problems regarding its internal unity, but its people hope – and together with them we also hope – to be able to build a future of freedom and peace. He recalled Blessed John Paul II’s visit to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on February 10, 1993, when the Pope expressed his closeness with the suffering people of the south displaced by war, and prayed that their freedom, fundamental human rights and human dignity be respected. Fr. Lombardi noted that the mysterious and extraordinary vitality of the Sudanese people witnessed around Pope John Paul 18 years ago hasn’t died down, but now needs the concrete and strong solidarity of the international community and of the Church in order to flourish.
