By Mary McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 7/24/03)

GREAT FALLS — Bishop Macram Max Gassis, exiled bishop of El Obeid Diocese of Sudan, completed a three week trip to the United States at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Great Falls on Sunday. The bishop delivered the homily at the 8:45 and 10:30 Masses, and celebrated the 12:30 Mass. Bishop Gassis spoke of the hardships encountered by the people in Sudan, and asked that everyone pray for justice and peace.

Bishop Gassis first spoke out against the human rights abuses in Sudan before a Congressional committee in 1988.

Bishop Gassis traveled to the United States in 1990 to undergo surgery. He was warned not to return to Sudan after the surgery. "I knew that my life was at risk," he said.

Sudan has an authoritarian government. All power is in the hands of Omar Hassan al-Bashir who has controlled the government since becoming president in 1989 following a military coup. In 1998, he disbanded parliament, suspended the Constitution and declared a state of national emergency that suspended basic liberties.

"I ask you to be ambassadors for justice and peace," Bishop Gassis said in his homily at the 12:30 Mass at St. Catherine Parish. "I’m sure you’ll take up this challenge with faith, hope and love. We are going to save so many people who are still carrying the cross."

The U.S. State Department reported in March in their "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" that the human rights record of the government of Sudan "remained extremely poor" in 2002. Among the offenses against the government listed in the report were extrajudicial killings and disappearances; and regularly beating, harassing, arbitrarily arresting, and detaining incommunicado opponents or suspected opponents of the government.

Last year, "discrimination and violence against women and abuse of children remained problems," the report claimed. "Slavery and trafficking in persons remained significant problems. Government security forces and associated militias were responsible for forced labor (including forced child labor), the abduction of women and children, and the forced military conscription of underage young men." Government security forces and associated militias beat refugees, reportedly raped women abducted during raids, and reportedly harassed and detained persons on the basis of their religion.

Bishop Gassis can now only enter his country through the "back door." He lives and works out of the chancery in Nairobi, Kenya. Bishop Gassis has become the voice of the persecuted while he protests the enslavement, forced starvation and mass murder of innocent people in Sudan.

Although many people may have pity on African Christians, Bishop Gassis said, "We are not, as some people may think, ‘the ever-dying people of Africa.’ Not withstanding the persecution, we are going ahead."

The current civil war in Sudan between the black African Christians in southern Sudan and the Arab Muslims in the north began in 1983.

Recently, there has been an attempt in Sudan to bring together religious parties and talk about peace. "I have great doubts," Bishop Gassis said. "For me to come from a war zone and for people to talk about peace, it is like making fun of those who live in war. The foundation is missing, and that is justice. If we go out to work out this peace without making sure slaves and slave children return to their parents, this peace is aborted before its birth."

On his third visit to St. Catherine Parish, Bishop Gassis was pleased to see an ebony cross hanging in the back of the church. The cross was a gift from him, brought to serve as a reminder to all who see it that "the Black Christ is being crucified everyday in Sudan."

"I hope the parish community will go say a prayer in front of Jesus crucified, for this devil we have in Sudan can only be cast out by prayer and fasting," said Bishop Gassis.

St. Catherine Church was the last stop on the bishop’s three week visit to the United States. He also visited Boston, Mass.; St. Paul, Minn.; and Florida.

In St. Paul, Bishop Gassis met with Thomas Loome, a collector and seller of books, who will be helping the bishop establish a library for his teachers, seminarians and church employees. In Boston, he met with another donor who has helped support a hospital and helped the diocese acquire a land cruiser to transport diocesan personnel. Without their help, "I don’t know what I could have done," said Bishop Gassis.

He said he continues to visit St. Catherine Parish because of "the goodness of the people. They have always shown interest in the Church in Sudan, and Father [Frank] McAfee [pastor] has always wanted to help."

Bishop Gassis is a friend of Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde. They studied canon law together at Catholic University in Washington.

Bishop Gassis’ plea to St. Catherine’s Parish, and to all Catholics united is to "Be the voice of the voices. Have the courage and strength and demand that peace without justice is another injustice inflicted upon the oppressed.

"Brothers and sisters, pray for our enslaved children, our raped girls who bear children who are not the fruit of love, but the fruit of hatred.

"A nation that does not take care of its children and elders is a doomed nation."