Visit to the Ruins of Okaru Seminary

View of Lowoi and its roofless church from the road going up the mountain to Okaru.

Visiting the parish community of Lowoi gave us the opportunity of visiting the historical site of Okaru seminary, which sits atop the mountain behind the village. The first thing that impressed me is how well the road leading up the steep face of the mountain was constructed and supported by retaining walls made of rock. At several points as the road weaves back and forth there are magnificent views of the valley below.

Some of the impressive ruins of Okaru seminary.

The main structure of the seminary had a classical design with a chapel at one end and the dining hall at the other, with classrooms (that still had blackboards on the walls) in between - all joined by a long hallway. It was adorned with beautiful arches and cornices and had an additional story that opened out onto the lower elevation behind.

The chapel and altar.

Fr. Herald walking through the refectory or dining room.

The missionaries who constructed the seminary were ingenious and creative engineers. Their first feat was building the road and getting all the materials to the top. They also had to make sure there was enough water for the fairly large seminary population residing on the mountain top, so they used the combination of rain water stored in cisterns and dammed a spring located a kilometer or so from the main compound and lined the path there with mango tress that still bear fruit.

The missionaries dammed a nearby spring
to serve as a water source for the seminary.

A cistern used to store rain water.

In addition to the main building there were a significant number of "satellite" buildings reflecting the large and diversified population of the site. In addition to priests and seminarians there were Sacred Heart Brothers from the US who taught the younger boys and religious sisters who assisted in various ways.

Ruins of additional buildings (also below).

I had very mixed feelings as I walked through the grounds of Okaru. We were all struck by the beauty and tranquility of the place. It's an ideal location for prayer, study and formation. You couldn't help but think about all the young men who passed through there and went on to become priests serving in Sudan or laymen working in other fields. In fact many older men in the diocese who are still alive, including high ranking government officials, studied there and have fond memories of the place. Last year a group of them made a pilgrimage to the site and celebrated Mass on the grounds. I also thought about Fr. Saturnino Ohure, the southern resistance leader buried in Torit, who also spent some time at the seminary. I wondered about the Sacred Heart Brothers from the US who served there.

Tragically all that came to an abrupt end when the foreign missionaries were expelled from Sudan in 1964 during the first civil war by the Islamist regime ruling in the north. Okaru closed the following year. How different the life of the Church in Sudan might have been if Okaru and other institutions like it had been allowed to flourish and prosper. In addition to its beauty, there is a deep sense of sorrow that lingers in these abandoned ruins. May that sorrow one day give birth to a renewal of places like Okaru for the formation of the minds and hearts of Sudanese youth.

Team photo with Fr. Joseph Ochan (second from left)
and two guides on the precipice overlooking the valley below.

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Two Day Mini-Mission in Lowoi

After we left Isohe on Monday we headed for Torit. We had arranged to meet Fr. Joseph Ochan, pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish, Lowoi, in town at around noon to purchase supplies for our three-day stay in his community. Lowoi is a small and somewhat dispersed village that doesn't even have its own market. After our shopping was completed, one vehicle loaded mostly with supplies and equipment headed off to Lowoi to prep for the mini-mission which would begin on Tuesday afternoon. The rest of us stayed in Torit to see Josh and Angela off on the Mission Aviation Fellowship flight that was picking them up on the airstrip the next day at noon. Our plans for Tuesday were complicated, though, by the arrival of the newly inaugurated governor of Eastern Equatoria State, Louis Labong. All the shops were closed and the streets would be blocked when his motorcade arrived from Juba. So we dropped Josh and Angela off early and headed for Lowoi shortly after noon.

Children participating in the Eucharistic healing procession.

In Lowoi we followed the same program we had used in Chukudum: two days of Eucharistic evangelization beginning with music and interaction, transitioning with a catechetical skit, two simple talks on some aspect of our Catholic faith, a Eucharistic "activity" (adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Tuesday, Mass on Wednesday), concluding with a film.

A young lady prayerfully awaiting the arrival of Jesus.

Despite still being in the first stages of reestablishing the parish after the war, the people of Lowoi were by far the most peaceful and orderly during our activities. Even though there were many children present they followed directions well to form concentric circles for the Eucharistic procession and participated very prayerfully.

Fr. Lawrence preaching at Mass on Wednesday afternoon.

At Mass on Wednesday, Fr. Lawrence preached on St. Bakhita, offering her as a model and example for the Sudanese to follow. After Mass we distributed holy cards with an actual photo of St. Bakhita and proceeded with dramatized film of her life.

Young and younger participants in the mini-mission.

Noelle resting under the protection of St. Bakhita.

Friars assessing the situation of the truck stuck in mud.

Because there had been rain the day before, on our way out of Lowoi on Thursday morning we found a truck buried in the mud. It stalled as it tried to pass through a large "puddle" (actually more like a small pond), and since its battery wasn't working it couldn't start again or move. As it happened, Josh brought some super heavy-duty jumper cables with him as a donation, and we thought they would do the trick, but the battery hookup was so poor that there was nothing we could really do except offer our sympathy as the man waited for his friends who had gone for help to return.

Maynor in action.

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Back in Lowoi,... and Narnia

Last Sunday, February 15, I was able to return to the village of Lowoi, this time to accompany Fr. Joseph Ochan for Sunday Mass. Fr. Joseph has just returned to Torit after serving for several years in the Archdiocese of Khartoum. A good number of priests from the Diocese of Torit who were ordained during the war began their priestly ministry in this way. This was Fr. Joseph's fourth consecutive Sunday visit to the community in preparation for taking on the responsibility as resident priest for the village. Before that can happen, though, arrangements have to be made for his accommodation. The dining area of the former village primary school will be reroofed to use as a provisional chapel, and one of the classrooms for Fr. Joseph's residence.



During this visit, I discovered that one one side of the bell - the only surviving religious image from the church - is an image of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, with the words inscribed above in Latin: Vox Mea Vox Vitae, My Voice is the Voice of Life. A beautiful expression that applies both to the voice of Jesus, and also to that of the bell itself who calls to those who hear it to come to the house of the Lord to receive Jesus, the Bread of Life, in the Eucharist.


On this occasion I also met a young sub-chief of the village, who asked to have his photo taken.


On the other hand I had to coax this serious but attentive boy to come forward for a photo.


Wanting to follow up on the momentum of the video of St. Bakhita the previous Sunday, and consulting with the youth coordinator of the parish in Torit, we decided to announce and show the first Narnia film that evening at the bishop's residence. Earlier in the week we had located and tested the projector and a new portable sound system a visitor had just brought from Khartoum, so I was pretty confident we could pull this off. Despite some techincal difficulties that casued about an hour's delay (we started with a generator, then switched to power from the town generator, but then experienced a short circuit with the outlet we were using), the showing went pretty well.

About 100 people - mostly young children, but also a good number of youth and a few curious adults - showed up. It was a very interesting cultural experience. There was a bit of a language barrier for the young children who are still learning English, and the film starts off a little slowly, which tested the patience of some. But once all four Pevensie children were in Narnia, everyone was glued to the screen. It was fascinating to watch especially the children's response to fawns, centaurs and minotaurs - these were creatures completely out of their conceptual framework. I imagine that most of the people present had almost no exposure to classical mythology.

But the basic message of the film is clear enough, not only the evident struggle between good and evil and the call to the children to rise to the occasion presented to them, but also the self-sacrificing love of Aslan the Lion (the Christ figure in the film) that is ultimately able to conquer the cold cruelty of the witch queen. I'm hoping to be able to follow up with a discussion with the older youth on the Christian symbolism of the film, and then continue with the second Narnia film and it's theme of faith.

Lowoi

The Catholic Community in the village of Lowoi has a painful history connected with both civil wars in the history of Sudan’s independence. The parish was established by the Comboni missionaries in 1947, but shortly after the missionaries were expelled in 1963 the church was badly damaged and remained unrepaired for about two decades. It was finally restored and able to be used again, but only for a few years until the SPLA established a presence there. The southern army removed the sheet metal roofing of the church and other parish buildings to prevent them from becoming an easy target for northern air raids. Since they were isolated and cut off from supplies, the SPLA also used the metal framework that supported the church roof to melt down and recast as plates, cups and other necessary items. The church has remained in that denuded condition until the present day.




Although the church once housed a beautiful sanctuary, tabernacle and side altars to Our Lady and St. Joseph, the community there does not now possess a single religious image – except that of the crucifix emblazoned in bas relief on the bell, which somehow miraculously escaped the destruction of the two war epochs.


They are also seriously in need of catechetical and other resources. Despite their trials, the faith of the community, which has produced a number of priestly vocations over the years, continues to remain strong. In addition to the miraculous preservation of their bell, God has given another sign of His approval of their faith and perseverance: a tree has sprouted and grown in the sanctuary of the church giving some shade to those who still gather to pray there.


Bishop Akio Johnson celebrated Mass there on Christmas Day and since has taken a step toward restoring a resident priest by repairing of the roof of the rectory using the local materials of bamboo and grass thatching.