It is close to three weeks since Rumbek Bishop-designate Christian Carlassare was airlifted for treatment in Kenya after gunmen stormed his residence and shot him on the legs leaving him incapacitated.

The law enforcement agencies rounded up over 25 suspects, among them three clerics for questioning over the heinous act of April 26. And even after Carlassare addressed the media from his hospital bed in Nairobi on April 29, the motive behind his shooting remains a mysterious affair-an undertaking that attracts widespread jeers but with little known facts.

Nonetheless, reports are emerging that xenophobia and ethnic rivalry may have inspired the ‘ungodly act.’

It all started with a Facebook post of a South Sudanese user who alleged that the diocese had a stinking history of violent attacks on foreign clerics who had been appointed to lead the flock.

The post read:  “Catholic Diocese of Rumbek has been obsessed by xenophobic syndrome for long time. These symptoms has been observed in several occasions where as former director of Radio Good News Fr. Don Bosco Ochieng was beaten on 17, September, 2012 and we called them unknown youth. The killing of Jesuit Fr. Victor Odhiambo JS in November 2018 was also termed as unknown gunmen. The current assassination attempt on Bishop Elect Fr. Christian Carlassare within vicinity of the Church Compound was also alleged to be unknown gunmen [sic].”

Brewing internal fissures

To verify the claims, The City Review dug deeper and spoke to an authoritative source privy to the details of the incidents who painted a picture of brewing animosity before the attack.

“Why bishop was only targeted among other priests that have been residing in the same compound within the mission. We must repent and accept our own mistakes, God is watching us…Our hands are folded, our lips are sealed because what had happened is unspeakable,” he stated.

Another source we have named Peter recounted, “when the incident occurred, one of the priests by name Father Andrea Osman was also there in the compound sleeping the next door where the Bishop-elect was sleeping. He (Osman) said two people entered the compound and knocked at the door of [Carlassre] and immediately bishop started shouting calling for the priest to come and help him.”

Fr Osman could not come out because he had no cover and the gunmen would have killed him had he tried to open his door. He gathered courage and opened his door only for the gunmen to tell him in local dialect (Nyairot) meaning ‘don’t be part of it or move away.’

A preliminary report leading to the arrest prior to the visit of the Inspector General of the Police revealed that a mobile phone of one of the suspects, who is a priest, had conversations in Dinka language where attacked is believed to have asked ‘where is his room.’

The findings from the Deputy Police Spokesperson Col. James Dak Karlo unearthed a well-coordinated ploy to attack the Bishop-elect, which traced its network all the way to Juba.  This comes alongside reports that one of the bishops within the diocese was angling for the position.

“The scenario we have discovered is that one of the Bishops might have an interest of being installed as the new bishop for the diocese,” Col. Karlo revealed.

Prior to Carlassare’s appointment pending formalisation as a bishop, Fr John Mathiang had been appointed as diocesan coordinator and had been serving as an interim bishop for 10 years. 

Mathiang is among those who were arrested for the investigation but there is no evidence linking him to the rumoured power struggle that threatens to tear apart the pulpit.

Carlassare has spoken on various occasions from his sickness bed in Nairobi, calling for healing of the congregants, declaring forgiveness for his attackers. But on May 5, he carefully crafted statement that sounded as a dig to his perceived enemies who perpetrated his attack.

He said: “I bend low in front of God to intercede for the church of Rumbek. I pray for the conversion of sinners.

“I offer the pain I’m going through so that the Lord our God may purify the church of Rumbek from all errors and things like these may happen no more; no room for violence, division, [and] selfish desires that come from the devil.”

The message portrayed a silent division and power struggles that maybe oozing from the walls of the diocese.

No, it’s criminal

But according Gino Barsella, a representative of South Sudan for the AVSI Foundation, who was interviewed with Catholic-oriented news outlet, the Crux, said the 43-year old cleric may have been a collateral damage in the tribal wars of South Sudan.

Barsella advanced the argument that the Comboni missionary had spent 10 years serving a particular community, and when he went to Rumbek to serve members of a different community, his previous hosts may have felt aggrieved.

“As he has been working for so many years with the Nuer, he was considered a Nuer: Not an Italian, not a foreigner, not a Comboni, so he should not be the bishop of Rumbek,” Barsella said.

This school of thinking was challenged by Sister Orla Treacy, an Irish missionary who has been running a girls school in Rumbek for 15 years. Treacy branded the attackers criminal elements with no tribal motivations. But she could not deny that locals who felt that an appointment should have gone to one of their own may have planned it.

The Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Juba Bishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla said the attack was not in any way xenophobic but at the same time concurred with Barsella arguments.

“I don’t think the attack on Bishop elect was because he was a white man that is ruled out. They attacked him because he is a Bishop of Rumbek Diocese, it is not xenophobic as people think,” Archbishop Mulla said, as he likened the assailants to the biblical Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ.

The metropolitan bishop said no one could choose to be either priest or bishop but leaders are chosen through the Holy Spirit under God’s guidance.

 “I call upon the believers in South Sudan and in particular all the believers in Rumbek, the priest, the clergy people religious, sisters and brothers to reconcile. It is not by gun or influencing other people to be chosen a leader, not all,” the Metropolitan Bishop objected.

Police Spokesperson in Rumbek Col. Elijah Mabor Makuac told City Review that nine people were released on Monday after the arrest of over 24 suspects for investigations.

“Many workers who have been working in the church were also detained through investigations. And if the investigation is completed, then the prime suspects will be taken to court for trial,” Col. Mabor said.

On May 5, Pope Francis appointed the Bishop of Wau, Mathew Remijio, as the Apostolic Administrator of Rumbek Diocese until the Bishop-Elect Christian Carlassare is healed.