In its initial stages the Southern Sudan Solidarity Project focused on finding trained nurse and teacher tutors who could work out of two intercommunity centres for a three year period. Being a small Congregation we wondered how we could help in some short term way since we had only limited personnel to assist on a long term basis.  Sr. Elaine Morzone spoke with Sr. Cathy Arata ssnd, the chairperson of the Southern Sudan Solidarity Project and was advised by her to meet with Sr. Mary Daniel Abut, the superior general of the Sacred Heart Sisters of Juba who would be attending the international conference of Women Religious in Rome in May, 2008.  During that meeting Sr. Mary Daniel spoke to Elaine of some of their spiritual needs so we offered to send a team to give directed retreats and nonviolence workshops for the month of September.

General Council, along with Margot Grobsmith, an affiliate and art therapist, from Syracuse , New York , traveled to Juba to begin a wonderful new friendship between the Sacred Heart Sisters and the Missionary Franciscans!  In terms of service we worked fairly continuously giving two directed retreats and two nonviolence workshops back to back.  But in terms of friendship we crossed borders and inner boundaries to forge deep heart bonds between the two groups.

The Sacred Heart Sisters are a national diocesan community founded in the late 50s by an Italian Comboni missionary, Bishop Sixtus Mazzoldi.  Because of a desperate history stretching across two civil wars and several periods of fleeing back and forth from the Sudan to Uganda, they have literally been uprooted and traumatized so often that they refer to themselves in their constitutions as Sisters in exile, following a God “who had no where to lay his head.”  This charism was evidenced in the war torn buildings around them and in which they dwell.

Upon our arrival we felt like visitors for only about twenty-four hours, after which we gradually all became sisters in one family.  They offered us their rooms, doubling up themselves.  We shared their table enjoying all kinds of new Sudanese dishes sometimes from a local restaurant that they manage as a means of support.  We traveled daily to their formation house where the retreats were held.  A cement bunker in the rear of this building was stern reminder of the horrors of the war where they often took shelter during nightly shelling of the neighborhood.

Throughout the days of retreat and prayer we shared stories and faith which brought sometimes tears and sometimes laughter.  The artwork of each day’s active meditation opened new avenues of prayer and self expression, being the sisters’ first experience having women as retreat directors. The alternatives to violence workshops broke new inner ground for awareness of the ways in which the five keys can open doors to more peace-filled living. The four weeks ended with a wonderful farewell party and plans for future annual sessions together.

                     Quiet Moment                                                                   Keys to Non Violence                         

Retreat Art                                                                          Liturgy

Since our visit there the nightly news and BBC internet websites regarding Africa have become a new focus for us.  A very fragile peace accord with the North exists for the South Sudan giving them temporary independence.  This will be put to a referendum vote in 2011. The outcome of the Sudanese elections of 2009 will impact their desire for total separation as an independent country.  Our MFIC circle of communion offers prayerful support and strength to the country and to our new Sacred Heart friends. We look forward to our next visit in October of 2009.

Click on the camera for more photos.