Pope Francis said churches in South Sudan cannot remain neutral but must raise their voices against injustice and abuse of power, as he and two other Christian leaders led a peace mission to the world's newest country.
On his first full day in South Sudan, Francis addressed Catholic bishops, priests and nuns at St Theresa Cathedral in the capital, Juba, as the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of Scotland held services elsewhere.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011 but plunged into civil war in 2013 as ethnic groups turned on each other. Despite a peace deal between the two main antagonists in 2018, bouts of interethnic fighting have continued to kill and displace large numbers of civilians.
According to Francis, 2.2 million internally displaced people in South Sudan, out of a total population of about 11.6 million, and another 2.3 million refugees have fled the country as refugees, in order to raise their voices against injustice and the abuses of power that oppress and use violence to suit their own ends.
Two-thirds of the population need humanitarian assistance because of conflict and three years of catastrophic floods, with extreme poverty and hunger rife.
The pontiff heard about a nun tell how two of her fellow sisters were killed in a 2021 ambush near Juba.
Let us ask ourselves what it means to be ministers of God in a land scarred by war, hatred, violence and poverty, and later pray for them, Francis said.
How can we exercise our ministry in this land, along the banks of a river bathed in innocent blood? He asked about the White Nile that runs through the country.
The pope, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Church of Scotland moderator, Iain Greenshields, will meet people displaced by war and hear their stories later on Saturday.
On an unprecedented pilgrimage of peace, three Christian leaders will take part in an open-air ecumenical prayer vigil at a mausoleum for South Sudan s liberation hero John Garang, with 50,000 people expected to attend.
The joint visit is the first of its kind in Christian history.
South Sudan is predominantly Christian, and tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Juba to welcome the pope with singing, drumming and ululations on Friday when he arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Francis implored South Sudan's leaders to renounce violence, ethnic hatred and corruption in a strongly worded speech to the former president Salva Kiir and vice-president Riek Machar.
At the same time, Welby said he was grieved that violence had continued after the 2018 peace deal and a 2019 gathering at the Vatican during which the pope knelt to kiss the feet of the warring leaders, begging them to bring peace to South Sudan.
I am sad that we still hear of such tragedies. We prayed and hoped for more. Welby told the assembled leaders you promised more.
Kiir said that his government was committed to peace in South Sudan.