Bishop Tombe Trille Kuku of Sudan’s El Obeid Diocese in Sudan has emphasized in his Christmas and New Year 2022 message, the need for safety for all citizens in the country noting that “Security of every Sudanese brother and sisters, is the security of Sudan.”

In his statement shared with AMECEA Online, Bishop Trille narrates that the festive season of Christmas is for the renewal of faith through trust in God and participating in promoting peace.

“At Christmas, we seek forgiveness to start a new page in our lives with those around us, we seek to love God and the others because he who does not love, does not know God,” Bishop Trille who is also the President of Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SCBC) says in the Monday message.

He adds, “Christmas is “the moment we think of others, a time of selflessness, where we forgive and evaluate our lives, our behavior, and our relationship with God and people to change and become a better person than we are now.”

Bishop Trille further acknowledged that this year’s Christmas in Sudan is celebrated “in the third year of the continuous revolution” which is the remembrance of the overthrowing of Sudan’s seventh Head of State Omar al-Bashir by a popular revolution that ended almost three decades in power.

The revolution according to the Local Ordinary of El Obeid Diocese bears the slogan of “freedom, peace, justice, and Sudan that accommodates everyone and that looks forward to changing and building a new Sudan in which everyone is equal, as one people and one nation.”

He reveals that the previous regime used discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization approach to rule the country since independence hence it has led to the current Sudan, yet the new Sudan that everyone seeks is “better with the cooperation of every Sudanese who is proud of his being a Sudanese, whether military or civilian without hateful tribalism or racism.”

The President of SCBC noted that since the revolution, politicians and political entities have been preoccupied “with political charters, tracks, and assessments, which has become threatening to dismantle the country on a tribal and ethnic or regional basis in the frantic struggle for power and the scramble for wealth.”

In celebrating the birth of Christ the Bishop said in his message, “it is a day to raise prayers and supplications to the Prince of Peace for the sake of justice and peace in our country.”

He called on every Christian believer to pray for everyone, for all in authority “that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.”

— Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA