Missionaries say people in Sudan, Chad embrace Catholic faith

Published: 2004-08-20

GREEN BAY, Wis. (CNS) -- People in Sudan and Chad are embracing the Catholic faith and, in some cases, transforming their lives, said two Comboni priests who work there. The priests -- one American and one Sicilian -- also said their lives have been changed as they witnessed the faith of the Africans, who deal daily with disease, hunger and -- in Sudan -- war. "You go in a village where you have a few Christians and find the chapel full," said Comboni Father Peter Ciuciulla. "I asked, 'Why are you here if you are not Christians?' And they would say, 'Father, you have come to speak the word of God. The word of God is for everybody, not only for Christians. So we are here to listen to the word of God,'" Father Ciuciulla said. When they see Jesus' body on a crucifix, "they see themselves, how they are suffering, and see that their sufferings are not foreign or strange for God. God himself is suffering as they are. They feel this very much," Father Ciuciulla said. "They should evangelize me," added the priest, who visited Green Bay in August. Father Ciuciulla has worked in Chad for 12 years. Comboni Father Dave Bohnsack, a Green Bay native who worked in Sudan for eight years, said Christianity changes how people act. For example, he said, when two neighboring tribes converted to Catholicism, they quit battling each other and built a single church where both tribes worship together, rather than separately as they did before.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .