WHICH WAY WESTERN AQUATORIA? Mr. Simon Mikanipare on the Disappearance of Fr. Luke Yugue and Mr. Michael Gbeko

WHICH WAY WESTERN AQUATORIA?

Mr. Simon Mikanipare on the Disappearance of Fr. Luke Yugue and Mr. Michael Gbeko

My heart is bleeding because of the scary and ugly news coming from Tombura day in and day out especially the one that took place on the 27^th of April 2024. My condolences go to all the family members of the deceased Fr. Luka Yugue and his driver Mr. Michael Gbeko and by extension to the Catholic Diocese of Tombura Yambio (CDTY) and the whole mother church. Fr. Luka was a Catholic Priest from CDTY and was a priest in charge of a parish of Nagero. Learning about his disappearance is not only so bad, disturbing, and tempting to all of us, but we are also disturbed by the opinions, and the spirit with which we go about doing the unthinkable things. The human person is an originating cause of moral actions, and it is clearly within our power to be good or bad, we are not good or bad by nature; rather by nature, we are adapted to receive virtues and are made perfect by habit and education. This article calls for individual meditation and a quick retreat from the direction we are undertaking. It is not imposing on you what is from outside or something against your nature and will, rather, it asks you to enter into yourself and discover the truth which is in you. The truth is, there are two ways for us to choose whichever we want according to our will and reason, the way to death and darkness or the way to life and prosperity.

To the family

I am so speechless.  I only call upon us to be closer to God at this time in the search for justice. It is not easy to be calm and stay reasonable in a situation such as this, but that is what I call upon us to do and we have to do it together with God.

To the Catholic Diocese of Tombura Yambio

Please accept my condolences. I, together with the Christian community in and out of the Diocese are with you in prayer and action. Fr. Luka was not looking for his benefit, neither was he looking for riches. He was a man of God, Christ-like, helping everybody both the Balanda and Azande by seeking that which was good and holy to all. If there is anybody to fear and spare out of this ugly and unthinkable game, it should be priests, religious sisters and brothers, (men of God), doctors, teachers, and police officers. But here we are in a different situation facing a different reality.

My word to the Diocese

My word to the diocese is; to continue to pray and work as Bishop always avers, but this time around with this new situation, new culture, and new reality, the Diocese must rethink another way of doing the same prayer and work. Rethink of the whole apostolic service to your people. Rethink the way and method through which you nurture the young through catechism, rethink how to teach those who come for the preparation for the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and remind them about their natural and primary duty to their children (education/home education). Rethink about the formation of priests. Rethink the well-being, the security of the teachers, seminarians, religious brothers and sisters, deacons, and priests because life is a precious gift and must be taken care of as Bishop used to say.

To Both the Church and the Government of Western Equatoria and South Sudan at Large

I see darkness engulfing us. The darkness of hatred, tribalism, selfishness, egotism, corruption etcetera, in this situation what do we do? Do we allow ourselves to be succumbed to this stupendous event? Whom do we run to for help in this mess since it is always proliferating and if time is not taken, it will do us more harm? Do we run to God? To witchdoctors? To America for help? To ourselves? Where? Something must be done and must be done now since we don’t have a better time than now.

Turn to Ourselves

I call upon the church and the government (here I mean ‘we’ ‘you and I’, the Azande and the Balanda) to turn to themselves and ask some fundamental questions about our actions, our life, our future, and the future of our children. We don’t need to turn to anybody outside the state or the country, we do not have a brother or a sister outside there who will come and clean our mess but we do.

No need to write a letter to anybody, we have no body, no head, no leader, all we have are enemies who wish we should perish so that they can take over our land. We don’t need to turn to God and then to ourselves but to ourselves and then to God for blessing upon our actions. I see it so insulting to God when we run to him with anything and everything. We have been caged into this ideology for ages long; for the idea that man expects God to do everything leads to inevitable misuse of prayer, for if God does everything, man then asks him for anything, and God becomes little more than a cosmic bellhop who is summon for every trivial need, or God is considered so omnipotent and man so dull and powerless that prayer is or becomes a substitute for work and intelligence. And the question is, why man was endowed with rationality then?  God Himself told Moses; “why are you crying out to me, tell the Israelites to move on.”  Whereas we have to affirm the importance of prayers, we also have to realize that we hold our responsibility of making ourselves and the world in which we live better, no predaceous thunderbolt from heaven will burst away evil, and no mighty angels will descend from heaven to do what their wills resist in another way, run our duty for us. 

We don’t need to turn to the outsiders or witch doctor but to ourselves, interrogate our conscience and the truth will be discovered which resides in our hearts. The reality that has befallen us is the manifestation of what is within us.

Let’s take time and enter into our hearts and do some self-examination. What has come over us? Where did we go wrong? Which pleasure do we gain when we indulge ourselves in such an unhealthy culture? How do we feel when we see a great land like Tombura being succumbed to such a dystopia activity? Why be stubborn to listen to nature, to your heart? To the voice of the voiceless? Why don’t we care about our life? The life of our children? Have we forgotten about our natural and primary duty to our children? Why have we refused to look beyond our noses? What kind of norms and dictums are we teaching our children? Do we still have a sense of morality? Even if you pretend not to care because you and your household haven’t been affected by this mess, you will care when you will be affected and at that time it will be too late to do something about it. Do something now or else we perish like fools.

To conclude, we need to examine our lives and make a choice that is from our heart and there is no better time than now. Choose yourself now. You and I don’t need a politician, a churchman, a witch doctor to tell us because it is within our power of reason to figure out and follow only that which is better for you and your family, state and nationwide.