He appealed to President Salva Kiir, his former deputy turned rebel leader Riek Machar, and three other vice presidents to respect an armistice they signed and commit to forming a unity government next month. I am asking you with my heart, let us go forward. There will be many problems but they will not overcome us. The leaders appeared to be stunned as the year-old pope, who suffers from chronic leg pain, was helped by aides as he knelt with difficulty to kiss the shoes of the two main opposing leaders and several other people in the room. So, as simple citizens, you will become fathers of the nation. Sudan, which is predominantly Muslim, and the mainly Christian south fought for decades before South Sudan became independent in South Sudan plunged into civil war two years later after Kiir, a Dinka, fired Machar, from the Nuer ethnic group, from the vice presidency.
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By Leigh Mcmanus For Mailonline. Pope Francis knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan's rival leaders in an unprecedented act of humbleness to encourage them to strengthen the African country's faltering peace process. At the closed two-day retreat in the Vatican for the African leaders, the pope asked South Sudan's president and opposition leader to proceed with the peace agreement despite growing difficulties.
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The surprising and moving gesture of Pope Francis at the conclusion of the two-day spiritual retreat for peace in South Sudan, which the Pope hosted in his own house, has an evangelical flavour. And it occurred exactly one week before the same gesture will be repeated in the churches of the whole world, in memory of the Last Supper, when Jesus, now at the vigil of His Passion, washing the feet of the Apostles, showed them the way of service. It is a forceful image, which cannot be understood except in the climate of reciprocal forgiveness that characterized the two days of retreat. It was not a political or diplomatic summit, but an experience of prayer and common reflection among leaders who despite having signed a peace agreement, are struggling to ensure that it be respected. Peace, for believers, is invoked in the presence of God. And it is invoked by praying even more in the face of the sacrifice of so many innocent victims of hatred and war. Kneeling with effort to kiss their feet, the Pope bowed down before that which God had raised up during this meeting of prayer.
A BLACK supremacist group is apparently making white people kiss their feet to atone for centuries of racism. Bizarre footage from California claims to show the members of Sicarii forcing passersby to bow down before them. But the San Diego-based group has gained a lot of notoriety for its allegedly anti-Semitic messages and open hatred for the US. It claims that blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans are the "true descendants of the 12 Tribes of Israel". The small hate group stages regular public demos where it heckles and intimidates passersby, according to the Anti Defamation League. One video shows two people kissing their boots though there is no evidence to suggest they are doing this to apologise for racism or slavery. One of their videos, which has since been removed from YouTube, was titled "God strikes white man down at Israelite camp". It is alleged to have shown a member of the group attacking a passerby while Glaude yelled: "The war is on. The Sicarii, who use the Star of David as their emblem, are also said to chant "death to America" during their demonstrations.
