Irish nun in South Sudan says meeting Pope Francis was ‘joyful’ and ‘hope-filled’

Sr Orla Treacy walked for nine days through South Sudan with some 100 young people to meet Pope Francis in 2023. Picture: Ireland.ie

An Irish nun who walked for nine days through South Sudan with about 100 young people to meet Pope Francis said that he “radiated joy” and brought hope of peace to them.

The Pope travelled to South Sudan's capital Juba in February 2023, and was a long-time advocate for peace in the region — even as recently as last month.

Sr Orla Treacy, a Wicklow woman who spent parts of her childhood in Tralee and Ennis, is director of Loreto Rumbek in South Sudan.

This includes a primary and secondary school, a health centre, and an adult education unit.

Pope Francis meeting the group of over 100 people including Loreto nun Sr Orla Tracey who walked from Rumbek to South Sudan's capital, Juba, to meet him in 2023.

The group of young adults from the diocese walked along a red earth road for over 400km.

“We started with the dawn, we’d do some exercises, and then we’d have a morning reflection around peace. It might be some words from Pope Francis or some words from Scripture,” she said of the daily routine.

“Then we’d have 30 minutes of silence, praying and reflecting on the theme of the day.

“Then people are encouraged to share with their neighbours.”

Temperatures ranged from 35C-40C.

“Then we have the rosary. The idea is to pray for the community we are walking through that day,” she said.

Pope Francis arriving to celebrate Mass at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, in February 2023. Picture: Ben Curtis/AP

“Many of the roads — we would have known them as dangerous places where cars might have been attacked, where women might have been raped, so now here we were coming with a new encounter.”

They walked only in daylight. She said: “We don’t have electricity — it’s not like you can move around in the dark — and then you have wild animals.”

A truck carried food and water. They cooked themselves and slept in schools on classroom floors, including Sr Orla and other religious group members.

Sr Orla Treacy in Killarney in 2017 after receiving the 2017 Hugh O’Flaherty International Humanitarian Award. Picture: Don MacMonagle

“We didn’t think we would meet [Pope Francis], but the papal nuncio came to meet us as we were walking into Juba,” she said.

“In South Sudan, you won’t hear about young people walking like this because of the insecurity — so it got a lot of attention.”

They were taken to meet him, she recalled yesterday.

“I always say, in South Sudan, sometimes we’re kind of forgotten. But when you see a big man like that coming to spend time with you, it’s like you become the centre.

“It was a real sense of where he brought the margins to the centre, he brought us into the middle of the world because all the media were around him.

Then Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Pope Francis, South Sudan president Salva Kiir, and then moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland Iain Greenshields in Juba in February, 2023. Picture: Gregorio Borgia/AP

“There was no pomp and ceremony, it was just a beautiful moment.”

She still has the rosary beads that Pope Francis gave her that day.

“I’ve always admired him,” she said.

“He just radiated joy. We often talk in prayer about the loving gaze of Jesus — that was exactly what we experienced with him. He just looked at us with such hope and joy, it was just a beautiful experience.”

His message of peace resonated strongly with the young people, Sr Orla added.

Loreto Rumbek did similar walks in 2024 and last February on different routes, but they followed the same routines of prayer and walking.