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Bishop Yunan Tombe Trille Kuku of Sudan’s El Obeid Diocese. / Credit: CRN

ACI Africa, Dec 6, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).

The bishop of the Diocese of El-Obeid in Sudan has shared his harrowing experience at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who tortured him and left him seriously injured.

Bishop Yunan Tombe Trille Kuku Andali, who was accompanied by a deacon, fell into the hands of the paramilitary force while he was traveling to the embattled country.

He shared his horrific experience with Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of South Sudan’s Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, who shared the report with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Dec. 1. Neither bishop was available to provide more details of where the bishop and the deacon were travelling from when they met their assailants.

In the report, Tombe Trille, a former president of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, wrote about how he and the deacon were first harassed by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), who are in conflict with the RSF in the country’s worst civil war, which is ongoing.

He wrote to Hiiboro, saying: “I just arrived in El Obeid together with Deacon Joseph. This time, I was badly treated.”

He reported: “From the side of the army, some little cash in USD was taken on pretext that I was carrying the forbidden hard currency.”

After the harassment by the SAF, the two ran into the RSF, who beat up the bishop and left him for dead. 

“On the side of Rapid Forces, I was given countless heavy blows on the neck, forehead, on my face and two sides of my head,” the bishop said.

When he wrote to his fellow bishop, Tombe Trille said he was so seriously injured that he could not move his jaws. “I can’t bite food,” he said. 

“Together with [Deacon Joseph], we narrowly missed martyrdom [before] one leader said, ‘That is enough,’” he said in his note to Hiiboro, in which he also expressed gratitude for the “prayers of many.” 

This is not the first time Tombe Trille has stared death in the face as war rages on in Sudan, where he has been serving since he was ordained a member of the clergy of El-Obeid 33 years ago.

On April 20, 2023, just five days after fighting between SAF and RSF erupted, the 60-year-old bishop and some other clergy narrowly escaped death when rockets hit the premises of his cathedral, destroying the main gate of Mary Queen of Africa Cathedral and the priests’ residence.

The incident is said to have occurred when the bishop of El-Obeid and the priests were praying. Thankfully no one was injured.

Tombe Trille has been vocal about the Sudanese war that has reportedly led to tens of thousands of deaths and massive displacements, questioning the willingness of the warring parties to lay down their weapons.

The war, now in its second year, has reportedly led to 61,202 deaths, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Sudan Research Group, which also reported that 26,024 of those killed died from direct injuries owing to the conflict.

In an interview with ACI Africa last year, Tombe Trille lamented that dialogue between the two opposing forces had been given a wide berth, saying: “So far there is not even a clue to the light of peace dialogue that can bring hope for the Sudanese.”

“I believe that our leaders are not ready for peace. Fighting and conflict have the upper hand as we hear them say, ‘Unless we defeat the other group we won’t put down weapons,’” he said.

The bishop cautioned that “the more the fighting, the more people get scattered” and “the more hatred grows among various Sudanese ethnic groups.”

He appealed for prayers, noting that the humanitarian situation in the country was dire.

He further appealed to the people of neighboring South Sudan to share the little they have with the Sudanese who are fleeing the conflict and to make the refugees feel at home. 

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

[…]

Harare, Zimbabwe, Sep 26, 2019 / 04:00 am (CNA).- British-born John Bradburne, who died in Zimbabwe 40 years ago, could be on his way to becoming the country’s first canonized saint.

Bradburne is a revered figure among the Catholic community in the landlocked southern African country of Zimbabwe. According to reports, Bradburne was shot in the back after he was abducted from his hut in Mutemwa in the north-east of Zimbabwe.

Who was he?

Born in 1921 to Anglican parents in Cumbria, England, Bradburne converted to Catholicism in 1947 while living with Benedictine monks, after he had a religious experience during World War II.

He lived after his conversion as a pilgrim, shuttling between England, the Middle East and Italy, living out of one bag. He was a prolific poet.

Bradburne joined the Secular Third Order Franciscan in 1956.

He later made contact with Fr. John Dove, a Jesuit friend living in Zimbabwe. Bradburne asked whether there was a “cave in Africa” where he could pray. Dove encouraged him to move to Zimbabwe, where he arrived in 1962.

In Zimbabwe, he told a Franciscan priest the three desires of his life: “to serve leprosy patients, to die a martyr, and to be buried in the Franciscan habit.”

In 1969, seven years after his arrival in the country , Bradburne’s desire to care for leprosy-afflicted patients was fulfilled, when he was appointed the lead caretaker at Mutemwa Leprosy Settlement, a center that cared for leprosy patients.

Bradburne spent hours with patients. He rose at 3:00 each morning, and washed patients, bandaged them, ate with them, and talked with them. Some of them he carried to Mass. But he clashed with leaders at the center over the conditions in which patients lived, and eventually, he was fired.

He was allowed to live in a deserted single-roomed tin hut in the settlement compound.

His house had no running water, but he was glad to be within the vicinity of the lepers, whom he continued helping in whatever way he could.

During Zimbabwe’s civil war, which lasted from 1964 until 1979, Bradburne protected the lepers from exploitation, something that raised suspicion, especially, locals say, because he was a foreigner, and his motives were frequently suspect.

Locals became hostile towards him, but he refused offers from other Christians to take him to safety.

Bradburne died on Sept. 5, 1979 when he was shot dead at age 58.  He was buried in the Franciscan habit, as he had hoped to be.

During his burial, three unexplained drops of blood were found below his coffin, reports say.

For his compassion toward the afflicted, Bradburne has been called the “Damien of the 20th century” in reference to St. Damian of Molokai who cared for lepers in Hawaii.

“He did a good thing, and that is what it is about. The love the lepers continue to have for him, because of his sacrifices, is truly astonishing.” Kate McPherson of the John Bradburne Memorial Trust told reporters in July.

In an interview with BBC, Fr Fidelis Mukonori who worked closely with the Bradburne recalled his friend’s account of living with lepers, “From the day I set my eyes on these people, I discovered I am also a leper among my own people.”

“Working for and with them I feel appreciated, that I am doing something good and they call me Baba [Father] John,” Mukonori remembered Bradburne telling him.

“He arrived with few possessions, only love,” Colleta Mafuta, 78, a leprosy survivor who knew Bradburne told BBC.

“The colony was filthy and the people were dirty. There was no medication, no clothes and people went hungry. He took care of everyone’s needs – feeding people, and washing and bandaging our sores,” she added.

According to Independent Catholic News, two people have claimed miraculous cures through Bradburne’s intercession: a woman in South African who regained the use of her legs, and a man in Scotland cured of a brain tumor.

On July 1, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved initial investigations into Bradburne’s sainthood cause. On Sept. 5, Archbishop Robert Ndlovu of Harare celebrated a Mass at Mutemwa where Bradburne served, to mark 40 years since his death and to officially launch his sainthood cause.

A version of this story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s African news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.
 

[…]

Christian worshippers pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. / Credit: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Oct 7, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
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