Priest risked life to bring Gospel to South Sudan

Father Daniele Comboni, born in 1831 in Brescia, Italy, came to Africa at a time when sending missionaries to the continent were seen as “condemning them towards a sure death with no visible fruits”. But in death, Comboni was canonised by Pope John Paul II on October 5, 2003.

The book, Servants of the Gospel: Witnesses in the Footsteps of Saint Daniele Comboni in Sudan and South Sudan, offers a history of this expansive territory particularly on its religious leanings where in the north, the Arabic speakers are mostly Muslims compared to south where there are different cultures according to tribe - the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Bari and others.