Paride Taban

Paride Taban (born 1936 in Opari, Eastern Equatoria)[1] is a South Sudanese prelate of the Catholic Church and was the first leader of the Sudan Council of Churches,[2] which was founded in February 1990.[3] He was Auxiliary Bishop of Juba 28 Jan 1980 to 2 July 1983 and served as Bishop of Torit from 1983 to 2004.[4]

Biography

Taban was the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Torit in what was then Sudan from 1983 until 2004.[2] In 1989, when the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) overtook Torit, he was arrested with three other Catholic priests by the SPLA.[5] Until 1990 he and Nathanael Garang were the only two Bishops active in areas held by the SPLA.[6] Since his retirement from the diocese, he has been leading an effort to make peace in South Sudan real by setting up the Kuron Peace Village, established in 2005.[2] Before becoming bishop of Torit, Taban was auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Juba and the titular bishop of Tadamata from 1980 to 1983.[7] He was ordained May 24, 1964 and consecrated a Bishop May 4, 1980 in Kinshasa by Pope John Paul II.[7]

Taban was sent to Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide for reconciliation efforts.[8]

Bishop Paride has received numerous awards including the Sergio Vieira de Mello Peace Prize awarded by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2013 for his work at the Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron [9] and the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in 2017[10] for co-founding the ecumenical New Sudan Council of Churches, building Kuron Peace Village, and chairing the mediation initiative between the Government of South Sudan and COBRA Faction of the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army led by David Yau Yau, which produced a successful peace agreement on 6 January 2014.[11]

In December 2016, Taban was appointed by the President Salva Kiir Mayardit as a co-chair of the steering committee of National Dialogue.[12] Taban has witnessed the suffering of South Sudanese since he was young and he was not happy to see south South Sudanese suffering in the hands of their fellow southerners[13]

AWARDS

In September 2017, Taban received the peace award of the United Religious Initiatives for Africa.[14]

In May 2018 Taban received the Four Freedoms Award, freedom of Worship medal from the Roosevelt Foundation for his life-long and selfless dedication to the cause of bringing freedom and peace to the people of South Sudan https://www.fourfreedoms.nl/en/laureaten/year:2018/award:freedom-of-worship-award/laureates:paride-taban.htm

References
  1. "Bishop Paride Taban". The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
  2. "College of St. Benedicts/St. John's University Peace Studies Department biography". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
  3. Rolandsen, Øystein (2005). Guerrilla Government: Political Changes in the Southern Sudan During the 1990s. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. p. 75.
  4. "Diocese of Torit South Sudan South Sudan". GCatholic.org. Retrieved 22 Jan 2018.
  5. Rone, Jemera (1994). Civilian Devastation: Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan. Human Rights Watch. pp. 126–127.
  6. We Have Lived Too Long to Be Deceived - South Sudanese discuss the lessons of historic peace agreements. London/Nairobi: Rift Valley Institute (RVI). 2015. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-907431-39-5.
  7. "Bishop Paride Taban". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  8. Anderson, Mark (August 6, 2015). "South Sudan: the bishop who brings home lessons of unity and peace". The Guardian. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  9. UN Statement for Sergio DeMello Peace Prize
  10. "Archbishop of Canterbury's Awards ceremony held at Lambeth Palace". The Archbishop of Canterbury. 13 June 2017. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  11. Simon Wudu, Waakhe (September 27, 2016). "Militant Faction Vows Again to Fight S. Sudan Government". VOA news. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  12. "South Sudanese president's call for national dialogue unlikely to end fighting as conflict spreads nationwide". IHS Jane's. 20 Dec 2016. Retrieved 13 Dec 2017.
  13. "Bishop Paride Taban speaks". March 6, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  14. "South Sudan Bishop Paride Taban Recieves [sic] Peace Award". Mill Hill Missionaries. 23 September 2017. Retrieved 13 Dec 2017.
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