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Pope Francis was greeted by cheers on Saturday as he arrived at a meeting with roughly 2,500 South Sudanese refugees. The meeting with internally displaced persons (IDPs) took place at Freedom Hall in South Sudan’s capital of Juba, where Pope Francis is undertaking a pilgrimage of peace from February 3-5. “You, from all your different ethnic groups, you who have suffered and are still suffering, you who do not want to respond to evil with more evil. You, who choose fraternity and forgiveness, are even now cultivating a better tomorrow,” he encouraged those present. South Sudan has the largest refugee crisis in Africa, with 2 million IDPs due to conflict, insecurity, and environmental challenges, the UN Refugee Agency reports. There are also more than 2 million South Sudanese refugees living in neighboring countries.
On Sunday, Pope Francis urged Christians in the war-torn African country to make “a decisive contribution to changing history” by refusing to repay evil with evil. More than 100,000 people attended the papal Mass in Juba held on the grounds of a mausoleum commemorating John Garang, a liberation leader known as the “father of South Sudan,” though he died in a helicopter crash before the newest African country gained its independence in 2011 and plunged into a brutal civil war two years later. Pope Francis underlined that South Sudan’s Christians are called to be “light that shines in the darkness” by living out the Beatitudes. In his homily, Pope Francis said that Christians are called to be “people capable of building good human relationships as a way of curbing the corruption of evil, the disease of division, the filth of fraudulent business dealings and the plague of injustice.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253556/pope-francis-meets-2500-refugees-in-south-sudan
Congress will begin investigating what Republicans call the “weaponization” of the federal government against pro-life advocates and Christians next Thursday, according to announcements from leading House members. A primary focus of the investigation will be the Biden administration’s targeting of pro-lifers through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. In 2022 the Biden Justice Department prosecuted a record 26 pro-life advocates under the FACE Act. Meanwhile, last year saw nearly 100 attacks against pregnancy resource centers and churches that went largely unpunished.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253555/investigation-into-fbi-fed-agencies-targeting-of-pro-lifers-parents-to-begin-next-week
Today, the Church celebrates the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki, a group of native Japanese Catholics and foreign missionaries who suffered death for their faith in the year 1597.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-paul-miki-and-companions-139