“When will the West wake up? I desperately need people. I need help today – not tomorrow!”

Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid Diocese (Photo: John McElroy)

An urgent request from one living the harsh and often brutal reality of life in Sudan. Once again Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid Diocese has been forced to leave his flock behind to take up the role of lobbyist in a bid to puncture Western indifference. His diocese includes the beleaguered region of Darfur. But it also includes areas which, though not in the headlines currently, may once again be in the frontline if October’s collapse of the 2005 peace deal sparks renewed fighting between the north and the south of the country.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), though not ideal, ended a 21-year conflict which saw two million killed, four million displaced, thousands of women raped and children, especially belonging to the Dinka, kidnapped and sold into slavery. Last October the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) accused the administration in Khartoum of violating many of the CPA’s provisions, notably failing to divide Sudan’s oil wealth and failing to withdraw its troops from those contested zones where the oil deposits are located.

Two million died and four million were displaced during Sudan’s 21-year civil war. (Photo: Loreto)

Sudan, with a population of 36.2 million, has since independence from Britain in 1956 been dominated by a small elite of northern Arab tribes. The withdrawal of the SPLM from the government of national unity means that once again the administration is dominated by the officials of President Omar al-Bashir, who seized power in a military coup in 1989.

In 1991 the regime attempted to impose sharia law but it only applies in the north of the country currently. A referendum in 2011 will allow the people of the south to vote on whether to secede from the north. Meanwhile, the four-year-old conflict in Darfur continues. Up to 200,000 people are dead and 2.5 million have been made homeless. The government in Khartoum has been accused of allowing Arab janjaweed militias to commit atrocities against the ethnic African peoples of the region.

Bishop Gassis (c) with Divine Word Missionaries from (l) Fr Brendan Casey, Fr Liam Dunne, Fr Vincent Twomey, Fr Anil Paul and Fr Peter Madden. (Photo: John McElroy)

The best the UN has been able to do is pledge 26,000 troops to bolster the 7,000 AU forces currently in Darfur. There are some countries in dire straits, which the West remains impervious to – Burma is one and Sudan is another. In both cases China plays a dubious role, stymieing international efforts to address the crisis and mopping up natural resources it greedily requires to fuel its economic boom.

Some aid has made its way to Sudan, notably from Saudi Arabia. But that has been earmarked for the predominantly Muslim north. And so the Christians and Animists of Southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and Darfur, are left to their fate by a world which hand-wrings but does little in the way of practical assistance.

In 2002 some 20 million people were living below the poverty line of less than US$1 a day. (Photo: Loreto)

Bishop Macram Max Gassis is a passionate man. It’s a refreshing change from the dispirited or even jaded cynicism you sense in some religious these days. On the issue of UN troop deployment in Darfur, the Bishop sweeps aside questions as to whether it is tokenism, saying, “My question is: when are they going to implement it? As I have said before, we have no time to waste. And with respect to the so-called UN, what kind of people are they going to send to us? People who are sex maniacs? People who are going to rape our own girls again – just like the others? Come on!” He adds, inflamed by the wilful neglect he has witnessed over the years, “They are playing with the lives of people, they are playing politics at the expense of human lives and that for me is a sin of homicide.”

“The international community doesn’t have any heart for suffering people. They talk about peace but they don’t know what peace is because they put peace before justice – their peace is for the birds. How can they speak about peace when the human rights of people are violated day in and day out. Give people their dues to guarantee a lasting peace. But they hound us about making committees for peace and missions for peace. They never speak about human rights or the justice that needs to be implemented before we reach peace. These are people who don’t know who God is. They don’t see God in their brothers and sisters who suffer in Darfur."

A church in southern Sudan which was destroyed during the war. (Photo: Loreto)

"They talk about a tragedy based on numerical facts. But one human life before God is as precious as the entire world. So the Church should be vocal because the international community has no conscience: evil is evil and you cannot water down reality.”

Bishop Gassis’s passion, faith and concern for his people are palpable, perhaps because he is close to suffering. He has survived three bomb attacks. “My priests were always the target of aerial bombardment and artillery shelling. They used to get their food provisions once every six months by plane and I was paying $21,000 per flight.”

The population density is 14 people per km2. (Photo: Loreto)

Perhaps this too explains his rather dim view of those missionaries who shun Sudan. “Sudan has always been forgotten. The option was always for Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa. You ask them about Sudan and they reply, ‘Oh, that hotspot, it’s an Arab-Muslim country’. Isn’t our presence among Muslims a witness of Christ’s love? Isn’t it through education that we destroy fanaticism and misconceptions? Isn’t it time we opened up to the Arab-Islamic world?”

As the only Arab-speaking member of the Catholic hierarchy in Sudan, and having been born in predominantly Muslim Northern Sudan, Bishop Gassis has a unique handle on the complex issues which have dogged and fractured this country. But his onerous position hasn’t stifled his willingness to speak out forthrightly. “I did not choose to be a bishop. I was told to accept this call and position. I was hesitant at the beginning, but once you are in the middle of water, you have got to swim. I have to defend my flock because I am the shepherd.”

Outside the cathedral in Rumbek. (Photo: Loreto)

He questions the pressure those based in the comfort and security of the West constantly put on him ‘to enter dialogue’. “When they point their fingers at us and say you should dialogue, it is very simplistic. What do they mean by dialogue? Convergence comes when we respect each other. What do Muslims know about Christianity and what do Christians know about Islam? There are centuries of prejudice and hatred which have been built up over a long time and this is not going to be cancelled by a simple smile and saying ‘Let us dialogue and sit at the same table’."

"There is an old Arabic proverb, ‘religion is for God and the country is for all’. We should respect people’s human rights and the freedom of belief. We are sharing the same country and possibilities of life. The right to life, the right of free speech, the right to form a family, the right to embrace any religion – these rights were not invented by any politician and they are not the monopoly of any government or regime. These are divine rights.”

In contrast, the Bishop has overseen a ‘living dialogue’ in the Nuba Mountains. Here amongst the huts of the Nuba, the Bishop has tried to build up some of the educational infrastructure destroyed during the civil war. The Nuba resistance forces brought together Muslims, Christians and Animists.

“The commander of the resistance, who is a Muslim, said to me, ‘Bishop, I thank you for bringing the priests; Bishop, I thank you for opening the school and above all Bishop, I thank you for bringing water through the wells.’” Despite the trojan work which has gone into getting a teacher training centre and a small hospital going, the Bishop worries that there will be no trained staff to run them. “Every door I knock I am told, ‘We don’t have personnel’. Can’t you pool the small personnel you have in Ireland? Two from here and one from there and say ‘let us go and run this hospital.’” The need for the hospital is underlined by the fact that at the moment by the time people are taken by lorry to the nearest hospital, the patient is usually dead.

Young women rebels parade with their arms. (Photo: Loreto)

He is critical of those in the Church who ignore regions like the Nuba, the Blue Nile and focus all their attention on Southern Sudan. “Do people realise the importance of the Nuba Mountains? We see the movement of the expatriate missionary personnel, North to South and South to North. And we are here in the Nuba looking at them moving by air over our heads. It makes me angry. My God! The future of the Diocese of El Obeid is the Nuba Mountains – are we going to sacrifice that? The issue of the Nuba Mountains has never been on the international agenda, even the Church presented the conflict in Sudan as mere North versus South, never speaking about the fate of this ethnicity in the Nuba Mountains. And if you are talking about evangelisation, the Nuba Mountains is a very rich field."

In an interview with America magazine Bishop Gassis expressed the view that love is a virtue of the strong and courageous and one who is a coward will never be able to love. It is love, he tells The Word that inspires and keeps him going. “How many times have I said ‘I’ve had enough’? My health is not that good, I am not that old but I am tired. It is not that I am afraid of criticism or slandering – no! The opinions of people are like the wind; they come from the north and at times from the south – why should I be afraid of them? But when I look into the eyes of the children or when I look at the eyes of the women looking at me and asking for help or see the elders coming for advice, I come back recharged. That’s what keeps me going – being in love with my people.”


Building for the Future in Southern Sudan

At the moment, Loreto is one of only two congregations with Irish-born personnel working in southern Sudan. Sr Kathleen MacLennan, IBVM, talks to Sarah Mac Donald about some of the demands and difficulties involved.

“It is hard to imagine the nothingness of southern Sudan. Nothing is available. No fruit, no milk, no vegetables. Everything has to be brought in by plane. Loreto went to Sudan almost two years ago with a view to having a secondary school up and running within a year. But given the conditions and the absolute non-existence of supplies and expertise locally, there has been one long delay after another."

"But the Sisters have persevered and stuck with the project and now they are almost ready to open a secondary school in the Rumbek area. Last count, the population in the region was roughly 3.2 million. However, since the peace agreement was signed with the North, people who were internally displaced have been returning en masse, so the population has increased dramatically in the last nine months."

"At the moment, education is not valued in itself. Secondary education is not part of the psyche of the people. They don’t necessarily see the why or the wherefore of it. And education for girls doesn’t enter the mindset. A major problem that the sisters have at the moment is convincing the leaders, the tribesmen and the local government that education for girls is as important and necessary as education for boys. It is a struggle."

Sr Anne Farren, IBVM, who is effectively writing the curriculum for secondary education in south Sudan.

"The biggest problem is that girls are married off very young. A daughter brings a dowry as the husband effectively buys her from her father. The currency is cows. A girl may bring up to 400-500 cows and this gives her father esteem and prestige in the community. To ask a father to forgo this for five years so that his daughter can attend school is a big thing and we understand that. We have to convince them that in the long-term it will be good for the whole family as this daughter will bring the family greater respect by being educated. We hope to give the girls a childhood and a dignity and sense of value and self-worth that’s not measured in cows but measured in her beauty of mind, her humanity and ability to be loving, just and creative."

"Our secondary school for girls will be a boarding school. We need everything from beds to books, from pencils to paper. We are going to have to staff it ourselves as there is no government system in place which will pay teachers or train them. Because of the war situation, we are starting from scratch. There is also an inter-congregational project which is bringing together many religious congregations around a joint project of education and healthcare training in Sudan"

"Over the next 12 months we are going to hear of a huge drive by the Catholic Church to promote an integrated programme of reconstruction and recovery. If the Church doesn’t do it, it won’t be done. The government in Khartoum is not really fulfilling its promise of putting funds into southern Sudan. There are already 22 religious brothers, priests and sisters who have volunteered and they are currently making preparations."

"It is quite symbolic that in choosing our sisters to go to Sudan, Loreto sent their youngest professed, Sr Orla Treacy from Co Wicklow. We were willing to give our hope for the future to the people of Sudan. The other sister is Sr Anne Farren from Co Donegal. She has been appointed as headmistress of the school. In the two years that Loreto has been there, Anne has become recognised among agencies such as UNESCO and the World Food Programme as one of the leading experts on education. She is effectively writing the curriculum for secondary school education for south Sudan."

"Sudan has been neglected by the international community for far too long. This is something we have to do. It is a great mission for the Church and a great outreach to the people of Sudan. We hope this is the beginning of a long relationship of love with the people of Sudan.”

For more information or to support this project, contact:
Loreto Sisters, Mary Ward International Office, Convent Lane, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 or www.loreto.ie