World Mission Sunday in Katire and Torit

Yesterday, World Mission Sunday, I had the joy of driving two hours/36 miles into the mountains south of Torit to celebrate Mass for the Catholic community in the village of Katire. It is a very remote, subsistence-farming community with a strikingly beautiful landscape. Tom Purekal of Catholic Relief Services in Sudan, a friend from my missionary days in Honduras, accompanied me, along with Angelo - one of the workers in the bishop’s compound.

Like many other places in the Diocese, Katire has suffered from a lack of rainfall and consequent hunger in recent months. Recent rains have made the prospects for a sorghum harvest next month more promising.

It was an overwhelming privilege for me to celebrate Mass for that community in that setting on World Mission Sunday. Although there is a recently repaired small chapel there, the community is too large to gather there for Mass, so we had Mass “under the trees.” During the homily I shared about World Mission Sunday, the Synod of Bishops for Africa currently taking place in Rome, and the Year for Priests being observed throughout the Church in the light of the Scripture readings.

The photos below show some scenes from Mass in Katire, two shots of the CFR Sudan Mission “Mary Mobile,” and some classrooms from the recently reroofed community school.








Later that day, after returning to Torit, we showed the film The Keys of the Kingdom to a group of young people gathered at Mercy House. It’s a beautiful and touching film that recounts the fictional experiences of Father Francis Chisolm’s humble and persevering missionary efforts and witness of authentic Christian charity amid difficulties, opposition and setbacks in China – an appropriate way to conclude the yearly day on which the Church reminds all of her members of the importance of the missionary dimension of her life.