"I am following with concern the events unfolding in Sudan," he said on April 16 from a window overlooking St Peter's Square.

"I am close to the Sudanese people, already so tried, and I invite you to pray so that they might lay down their arms and pick up the path of peace and harmony," he added.

The pontiff's call for unity and compassion comes amidst ongoing violence in Sudan, a country ravaged by years of conflict and political instability.

Fighting intensified in Sudan's capital of Khartoum and other cities after skirmishes broke out on Saturday morning between the Sudan army and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.

The clashes have erupted after almost a year and a half of military rule and have ended hopes for a peaceful transition of power.

At least 56 people have been killed and almost 600 injured, according to reports. Fighting is reportedly taking place primarily in residential areas of the city, where civilians have been sheltering indoors since Saturday morning.

Sudan plagued by political instability

Sudan, located in northeast Africa, has been plagued by political instability for years. In 2019, mass protests led to the military ousting of long-time leader Omar al-Bashir.

However, the country's power-sharing government was overthrown in 2021.

Two men took control: the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan and his deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who also leads a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The two leaders hold differing opinions on how to restore civilian rule to Sudan.

While the RSF leader claims to represent marginalised groups against the country's elites, his forces have been accused of committing acts of ethnic cleansing.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has reiterated Pope Francis' call for peace in Sudan and an immediate end to armed hostilities for the sake of the Sudanese people, who are already facing economic hardship, human rights abuses and political instability.

The WCC is "deeply saddened by the sudden escalation of conflict" between the Sudanese Armed Forces led by General al-Burhan, head of Sudan's transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the RSF led by General Dagalo, said WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay in a statement.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

La Croix International

BBC

CathNews

The most recent call came from former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams, after Patriarch Kirill of Moscow praised his country's armed forces and claimed they were acting in line with the gospel and Christian teaching.

The case for expelling "is a strong one, and I have a suspicion that some other Orthodox Churches would take the same view" the former archbishop says.

Williams, who speaks Russian and is an expert on Orthodoxy, says many in the Orthodox world feel that Orthodoxy itself is compromised.

"The riot act has to be read.

"When a Church is actively supporting a war of aggression, failing to condemn nakedly obvious breaches in any kind of ethical conduct in wartime, then other Churches have the right to raise the question and challenge it — to say, unless you can say something effective about this, something recognisably Christian, we have to look again at your membership."

He says he cannot accept the use of Christian terminology to justify "a nakedly aggressive, unprincipled act of violence against a neighbouring Christian nation".

"I'm still waiting for any senior voices in the Russian Orthodox hierarchy to say the slaughter of the innocent in war is condemned unequivocally by all forms of Christianity," he says.

"I feel rather devastated that the current leadership of the Church is in danger of betraying everything most precious in what Russian Christianity has given to the wider world: the saints, the witnesses, the hugely complex and enriching history in spirituality, art and literature. All of that is being tarmacked over by this extraordinary and almost obsessive nationalist fervour."

Other Christian Church leaders are even more blunt in their views on Kirill's behaviour.

The leader of the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany Dumenko, says Kirill has "made his choice in favour of the Antichrist. . .

"I urge those who still have him as their shepherd: open your eyes ... and do not be his accomplices."

The US-based Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute has accused Kirill of turning President Putin's "military campaign into a religious war". It has been urging the World Council of Churches to prevent Russian Orthodox leaders from "using Christianity as a cover for mass murder".

What Kirill needs to do

Williams says the "minimum" to be expected is for Kirill and others to "press for an effective and credible ceasefire". The Patriarch is "answerable to Jesus Christ" for the Orthodox Ukrainians being "killed by other members of his own flock", he notes.

The former archbishop's wish seems unlikely to be granted however. Kirill has been urging Russians at Mass to pray for "multiplying the power of our armed forces" and reminding soldiers of "the historical importance of the present moment".

Those caught up in the Ukraine war were "peoples of Holy Russia", he says.

Source

• Church Times

The PCID and WCC on Thursday released a joint document "Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19".

The document provides a Christian rationale for interreligious solidarity.

"Because interreligious relationships can be a powerful means of expressing and building solidarity, and of opening ourselves to resources coming to us from beyond our limitations, we invite reflection on how we as Christians can become partners in solidarity with all people of faith and goodwill. In this journey towards solidarity, different communities are inspired and sustained by the hope we find in our respective traditions." Read more