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| Rt. Rev. Taban Paride, Bishop Emeritus of Torit |
The Bishop Emeritus of Torit Catholic Diocese and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Bishop Paride Taban will celebrate 50 years of priestly service on Saturday, 24 May 2014 in Juba, South Sudan.
Information received from South Sudan said the Catholic Archbishop of Juba Paolino Lukudu Loro invites all priests, religious and faithful to join Bishop Taban in praising God for giving him grace for serving for 50 years. “Let us join him in thanking God for his call and commitment,” said Archbishop Lukudu.
He explained that Bishop Taban will preside over the thanksgiving Eucharistic celebrations at St Theresa’s Cathedral Kator on Saturday at 9:00 AM. Archbishop Lukudu calls on all religious leaders and faithful to colour the occasion with gifts to Bishop Taban.
Bishop Paride Taban was ordained as a priest on 24th May 1964 and appointed as the Rector of the Minor Seminary in Okaru in 1966, following the closing of the Seminary he moved to Juba and opened a new Minor Seminary there in 1967. Starting in 1969 during the civil war, he became a parish priest in Torit mission. In 1980, he was appointed a Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Juba in February 1980. He was consecrated a Bishop in Kinshasa, Zaire (Now Congo Democratic) by Pope John Paul II 4th May 1980.
In 1983, he was appointed the first Bishop of Torit. He retired from the Administration of the Catholic Diocese of Torit, when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the SPLM/SPLA and the Government of the Sudan was being reached in Naivasha in Kenya.
After his retirement in 2004, he moved from Torit to a remote area in the Sudan and in 2005 founded the Holy Trinity Peace Village Kuron, a place where people of different ethnicities and faiths live together. Taban calls the village a “small oasis of peace” in a country torn by ethnic and religious violence and hopes “to make Sudan a nation where people live as brothers and sisters, different religions living as people of God.”
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon gave Bishop Paride Taban the United Nation’s most prestigious humanitarian award of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize on March 2013
Bishop Taban founded the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC), an organization comprised of representatives from the Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, African Inland, Sudan Pentecostal and Sudan Interior Churches. The group sought to facilitate peace negotiations among the warring factions.
Meanwhile,South Sudan Democratic Movement/ Army or SSDM/A Cobra Faction leader who was staging war in Pibor County of Jonglei State, David YauYau arrived Juba on Tuesday amidst tight security, signifying the end of conflict between the government and his group the Cobra Faction.
His decision to end “arm struggle” came about after Church Leaders Mediation Initiative headed by Bishop Paride Taban who worked tirelessly to bring the group back on track for dialogue. Commenting on the return of General Yau Yau, Bishop Taban said that David Yau Yau finally realized that conflicts in the country can be resolved peacefully.
David Yau Yau told journalists shortly after his arrival in Juba that the peaceful resolution was only possible because of Church Leaders Mediation who believed that conflicts in the country could only be resolved peacefully.
General Yau Yau said that there is nothing impossible in implementing terms of their agreement with the government and that they would join the other stakeholders to resolve the current political crisis peacefully.
The Advisor to the President Mr. Akot Lual said it was unbelievable that General David Yau Yau would return to Juba from Pibor jungle, describing his arrival as a very great day.
He added that General Yau Yau would join the government to resolve more conflicts engulfing the country.
SOURCE: CRN and AMECEA Social Communications