Reflecting both the symbolic and the strategic importance of the world’s youngest independent nation, Pope Francis’s top diplomat recently urged South Sudan not to succumb to the “plague of vengeance” on his third trip to the African state.
Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Thursday in the largely Christian nation, which has been marred by violence since gaining independence in 2011, that forgiveness is “the key that unlocks the door to peace and justice – the forgiveness that Christ won for us on the cross.”
The Vatican Secretary of State was speaking Thursday in the South Sudanese city of Rumbek.
“Either we disarm our heart and give up violent means of solving our differences, or we destroy ourselves,” Parolin said.