We Are Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish

ACI Africa, Nov 11, 2025 / 14:56 pm (CNA).

The president of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SSS-CBC) raised alarm over the deepening humanitarian crisis in the two neighboring countries of Sudan and South Sudan. 

In his opening remarks to SSS-CBC members in the Catholic Diocese of Malakal in South Sudan, Cardinal Stephen Ameyu urged Catholic leaders to strengthen unity, foster nonviolence, and reinforce pastoral structures as the Church responds to the plight of the people of God in Sudan and South Sudan.

Ameyu described the meeting as “a sign of communion that binds us as the body of Christ; a communion that strengthens the bonds of unity, charity, and peace, which unite us in the college of bishops.” 

He prayed that deliberations during the meeting would be “guided by the gospel of nonviolence and the call to be servants of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.”

“The people of Sudan and South Sudan are enduring profound suffering, displacement, loss of life, destruction of churches and properties, and a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale,” Ameyu, who also serves as the archbishop of Juba, said on Monday.

He acknowledged with appreciation the spirit of endurance among the Sudanese people, saying: “Amidst these trials, the dioceses have demonstrated resilience, providing shelters, food, and spiritual care through charities and other agencies.”

He continued: “It is our pastoral priority that we work for peace and justice. We are called to build this important institution of justice and peace in our secretariat but above all also in our different dioceses,” he said, adding that the Church is deeply committed to humanitarian assistance, which has become a daily part of service in Sudanese Catholic dioceses.

“We provide support not only materially but also morally, offering solidarity to refugees and returnees who are coming back home,” Ameyu said. “We are together standing to evangelize these people, to have this catechesis for the people who are stressed.”

“We must always be aware, even in the midst of this destruction and this violence, people still need catechesis; they need evangelization. Let us focus on our mission for the family and the sacrament of marriage because we believe that marriage is one of the most important aspects of our societies.” 

The cardinal also expressed concern about new government-imposed taxes on Church properties and personnel, warning that such measures could undermine the Church’s mission to serve the poor.

“The recent imposition of taxes on Church properties and personnel threatens our capacity to serve the poor. The bishops will engage in dialogue with the government to address this issue,” he said.

Ameyu urged the governments of Sudan and South Sudan to prioritize peace above all else. “No one was created for war; we were all created for peace,” he affirmed. 

During the Nov. 10–14 meeting, SSS-CBC members are scheduled to discuss pastoral work, peace-building, and the growing impact of climate-related disasters on local communities.

In his homily during the opening Mass of the plenary, Ameyu urged Sudanese political leaders to end the suffering of citizens who continue to endure both natural and manmade disasters in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state.

“My dear government officials, it is your authority and duty to bring peace to the people of Malakal,” Ameyu said, adding: “Many say bishops and priests should bring peace, but I tell you, it is not the clergy who bring peace. We are already at peace within ourselves — it is the government and the people who must create the opportunity for dialogue and reconciliation.”

He emphasized that true peace in Sudan and South Sudan can only be achieved when citizens overcome tribal divisions and embrace unity.

“Let us accept one another as Shilluk, as Dinka, as Nuer, as people from Maban … Let us work together for peace,” he said.

During Mass, SSS-CBC members launched the Small Christian Communities (SCC) initiative to reinforce the Church’s commitment to the theme of synodality. The initiative encourages Christians to live in fellowship and take active roles in building peace within their communities.

In his homily, Ameyu also prayed for God to remove the “spirit of disunity” among South Sudanese people, affirming that the Church will continue to accompany the nation through prayer and moral guidance.

“Peace begins with each of us. When we walk together in communion and mission, South Sudan will find the peace it longs for,” the cardinal said.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 11, 2025 / 14:26 pm (CNA).

Apostolic Nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre told bishops at the 2025 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly that the Second Vatican Council is “the key to understanding what Church we are called to be today and the reference point for discerning where we are headed.”

The French-born prelate has served as the Vatican’s nuncio, or chief diplomat, to the U.S. since 2016. He spoke Nov. 11 at the bishops’ fall assembly in Baltimore highlighting the message of Vatican II and its mission of evangelization, education, and unity. 

In his address Pierre asked the bishops a two-part question: “Where have we been and where are we going?” Pope Leo XIV, in his new apostolic letter on education, asks the same question as he “urges education and communities to ‘raise your eyes’ and ‘know how to ask yourselves where you are going, and why,’” Pierre said. 

“This act of questioning, of examining the direction of our journey, is an essential part of Christian discernment,” Pierre said. “It’s something that every bishop must do when thinking about the Church and trusting in his care, and it’s something that we must do in our shared journey as shepherds of the Catholic Church in the United States.”

Two days after his election, Pope Leo told the cardinals: “I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.” 

Pierre detailed multiple aspects that the Second Vatican Council offers to the bishops and the world today. It serves as “the self-description of the Church for our age.” In the words of popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, it was “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the 20th century.”

“The council offered us not a new faith but a new way of describing and living the one faith in the modern world,” Pierre said. “The vision of the council was a vision for the future — a prophetic orientation toward a world that was only beginning to take shape.”

“When the council fathers issued those texts, the churches were still full; the effects of secularization had not yet become deeply visible. Many of the realities that the council intuited had not yet manifested themselves in the life of the world or of the Church.

“For this reason, the council’s documents were not fully understood in their time. They were not a description of where the Church stood but a map drawn for the territory into which she was being sent.”

“Today, that territory is our daily experience,” Pierre said. “We now inhabit the world that the council foresaw — a world marked by profound cultural shifts, technological change, and a secularized mindset that challenges faith at its roots. Now is the time to unfold the council’s map and walk its path — to rediscover in those texts the light and courage needed to navigate this moment with fidelity and creativity.”

Pierre: Vatican II continues its path from Francis to Leo XIV

“When asked about a Third Vatican Council, Pope Francis replied that the time is not ripe, because we are still laboring to fully implement the second. His pontificate was marked not by innovation for its own sake but by a call to live more fully the vision of the council.”

“In his first apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, which Francis had begun, the Holy Father’s reference point continues to be Vatican II, this time as it addresses our mission among the poor. Recalling Pope Paul VI, who said that ‘the ancient parable of the good Samaritan served as the model for the council’s spirituality,’ Leo writes: ‘I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society.’”

“He says that ‘the Second Vatican Council represented a milestone in the Church’s understanding of the poor in God’s saving plan.’”

Catholic education and evangelization 

The nuncio detailed Catholic education and ecclesial renewal. Vatican II’s “teaching on worship, the mystery of the Church, the Word of God, and dialogue with the world converge in one vision: a Church rooted in faith, animated by hope, and engaged with humanity through love.”

Gravissimum Educationis remains “a sure guide,” Pierre said. “It affirmed the right of every person to an education ordered to truth and dignity, the role of parents as first educators, and the inseparable bond between faith and reason in forming the whole person.”

“Pope Leo now develops that heritage, urging educational communities to be builders of bridges, not walls — allowing reconciliation and peacemaking to become ‘the method and content of learning.’”

Leo urges “educational communities not just to impart skills but to heal relationships, form consciences, and choose not what is convenient but what is just,” Pierre said.

Catholic education remains one of the great “success stories” and “enduring strengths” of the Church in the United States, Pierre said. “Vatican II did not create this educational mission, but it gave it a new horizon: calling Catholic education to look outward, to engage a rapidly changing world, and to form disciples ready to bring the Gospel into new cultural and social contexts.”

Catholic education “continues to be a radiant witness of evangelizing hope; where it is neglected or narrowed, the light grows dim,” Pierre said. It “offers a window into the wider story of how the council’s teaching has been received across the Church in this country.”

Mission of the bishops 

“If we embrace this full inheritance of Vatican II — the educational, pastoral, and social dimensions alike — the Church in the United States can continue to be what she has so often been: a leaven within this nation, a sign of hope that transcends division, and a servant of the common good grounded in the dignity of every human being.”

Bishops have “a call to represent the Church of the council,” Pierre said. “In our priesthood and episcopal vocation, we are called to be men of communion — pastors who walk with the people of God rather than standing apart.”

Bishops have a mission in evangelization and ecumenism, and in their engagement with public life, he said. Bishops “are not chaplains to parties or distant commentators but shepherds who bring the breadth of Catholic social teaching into civic discourse in a way that transcends partisanship.”

Pierre once again asked the bishops: “Where have we been, and where are we going?”

“The council is not behind us; it stands before us, the map for our journey,” Pierre said. “We are a Church rooted in the grace of the Second Vatican Council; a Church still receiving and embodying its vision; a Church sent forth in unity, as disciples and shepherds, bringing hope, joy, and mercy to a world in need.”

“The council’s documents continue to form us and guide our discernment of this moment,” Pierre said. “Pope Leo XIV now carries that same vision forward, interpreting it anew for the world of today.”

“If we walk faithfully with him, we will be the Church the council envisioned: a pilgrim people, a sacrament of communion, a beacon of hope, and a servant of the poor — drawing, even now, new maps of hope for the generations to come,” the nuncio concluded.

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