Discurso al Embajador de la República de SUDAN,
Excmo. Sr. Don Noureldin Mohammed Hammed SATTI*

28 de octubre de 1993
 

 
 
Mr. Ambassador,

With great satisfaction I welcome Your Excellency to the Vatican as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of the Sudan to the Holy See.

I thank you very much for having conveyed to me the greetings of His Excellency General Omar Hassan Ahmed AlBashir, of the members of the Government and of the Sudanese people. In return I as you to be kind enough to express to the Head of State my regards for his person and my warmest wishes for the fulfilment of his task regarding the good of the Sudanese people. I likewise greet the members of the Government and invoke God's assistance upon all those with great responsibility in the service of the nation. Last of all, I express my warmest greetings to all your fellow citizens, cherishing a heartfelt memory of the warm welcome they gave me during my recent Pastoral Visit to Khartoum.

I am moved by the memory of that visit. Great was my desire to go to Sudan and I am grateful to the authorities of your country for having made that visit possible; it allowed me to meet a people with a rich culture as well as to honour Blessed Bakhita on her own soil, with a large crowd of Christians. I also had the satisfaction of fulfilling my mission as Successor of Peter, which is to confirm the faith of my Catholic brothers and sisters. I was also able to manifest that I am close to all those who are suffering, to the displaced and homeless, the victims of drought, famine, sickness and the devastation of war. My ardent desire as a messenger of the Gospel was to promote the cause of justice and peace.

Your presence here, Mr. Ambassador makes me hope that a new impetus will be given to the search for and realization of those ideals of justice and peace to which the people of Sudan and the whole of Africa aspire. They are the necessary prerequisites for development and progress. Today I also renew the wish that I ardently expressed on your soil: may all Sudanese citizens lead a dignified life with respect for their rights, regardless of religion, social condition or ethnic membership. In this regard, I consider the message which your President's Special Envoy brought recently a good omen.

In your address you chose to mention the Apostolic See's efforts in Africa and elsewhere throughout the world for harmony among individuals and the promotion of their integral well‑being. I am grateful for your appreciation. Leaders of nations themselves are increasingly conscious of the priority tasks that are imperative, and I hope that in this area they will not be satisfied merely with good intentions. As I said at the beginning of the year to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, «basically all problems of justice have as their main cause the fact that the person is not sufficiently respected, taken into consideration, or loved for what he or she is. People must learn, or learn anew to look at one another, to listen to one another, to walk together» (16 January 1993, n. 6).

Please allow me, Mr. Ambassador, to take the opportunity of this meeting to send from Rome, through you as my intermediary, my most fervent greeting to the members of the Sudanese Catholic Church. Following the example of Bakhita, may they testify to the light and love that is within them and be bearers of hope for their fellow citizens! I can assure you that, under the leadership of their Bishops, the faithful of Sudan are anxious to make their contribution to this long‑term task of building a prosperous nation in which each citizen can lead a life in conformity with his dignity as a human being. Encouraged by their Christian faith, they will continue to work for the common good along with their fellow citizens of other religious traditions in the conviction that, despite the challenges which they must face, there are strong reasons for having great hope for the future.

In closing, please allow me to express my ardent wish that the people of your country may see their nutritional needs satisfied, that they may have adequate health care and live in harmony. I pray that the rapprochement and cooperation between Christian and Muslims may contribute to resolving their conflicts so that the obstacles to religious freedom may henceforth be a thing of the past and that lasting peace may become a daily reality.

As you begin your mission I offer you my best wishes and assure you that here you will find an attentive welcome and cordial understanding.

Upon Your Excellency, the Sudanese people and their leaders, I cordially invoke an abundance of divine blessings.

*L'Osservatore Romano. Weekly edition in English n. 45 p.8.

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