Bishop Paride Taban. | Comboni Missionaries

The Deputy Governor of Central Equatoria State has appealed to the Catholic Church to advocate for the consecration of Late Emeritus Bishop Paride Taban as a saint.

The clergyman died on November 1, 2023, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, at the age of 87 years.

His remains were flown back to the country on Tuesday morning and taken to St. Theresa’s Cathedral, Kator where a mass was conducted.

Deputy Governor Sarah Nene said late Bishop Paride deserves to be declared as a saint for his peacemaking efforts and because he died on All Saints Day.

“Bishop Emeritus is a man of peace, his death broke our heart and left a gap for peace, Bishop Paride died on the day of all saints followed by all soul’s day,” Nene spoke during the Requiem Mass in Juba.

“I want to join my voice with those who spoke ahead of me including Cardinal Zubeir Wako and your Eminence Stephen Amyeu, personally, I think Bishop Emeritus is a saint.”

“So we as Catholics, believers, bishops and priests, let us work on this so that we hear that Late Bishop Emeritus has been consecrated as a saint in South Sudan.”

For her part, the Speaker of the National Parliament Jemma Nunu Kumba liken Late Bishop Taban to “Mother Theresa” an Albanian Catholic sister who dedicated his life to serving the poor in several countries.

“I can say Bishop Paride is our Mother Theresa in South Sudan because he lived for a purpose of serving his people even in difficult times,” Nunu said.

Bishop Taban was born in 1936 in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria State. He was ordained on 24 May 1964 and consecrated a Bishop on 4 May 1980 in Kinshasa by Pope John Paul II.

He started his Episcopal Ministry in May 1980 as Auxiliary Bishop of the Juba Archdiocese before becoming the first Bishop of Torit and the co-founder and first leader of the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC).

Taban also sent to Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide for reconciliation efforts.

Bishop Taban is remembered for his efforts in promoting peace and reconciliation in South Sudan, particularly during the civil war that ravaged the country for many years.

He reportedly played a crucial role in facilitating dialogue and mediating conflicts between different ethnic groups the latest of which was establishing the Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron, which aimed to provide a safe space for people from different tribes to come together, heal, and build a peaceful future.

Upon his retirement, the clergyman co-chaired the nation-wide peace initiative dubbed the National Dialogue in 2017 before stepping down.

In 2019, when the country was still brewing hot from post-war tension, Bishop Taban advocated for the peace parties to embrace the religious teachings of forgiveness and reconciliation ahead of the formation of the next transitional government of national unity.