“Church in Angola looks to you with admiration”: Nuncio to Consecrated Persons

Luanda, 29 July, 2023 / 9:20 PM

The Apostolic Nuncio in Angola has expressed appreciation to Consecrated men and women in the country saying the Church looks upon them with “admiration and gratitude.”

In his address at the start of the 19th National Day of Consecrated Life, Archbishop Giovanni Gaspari also urged Consecrated men and women to be prophets by heeding their call from the Lord. 

He said that the Church in Angola is particularly grateful to the Consecrated persons for serving “the midst of so many trials, challenges and struggles.” 

“In the name of Pope Francis, as his representative in this country, I say thank you for your dedication, your courage, your sacrifices, and your patience,” Archbishop Gaspari said Wednesday, July 26 at the July 26-28 event that is being held at the Salesians of Don Bosco Center in Palanca.

He added, “I hope that this moment may serve to encourage and relieve each of you in the exercise of your apostolate, which is always a demanding commitment, as you well know.”

In his July 26 address, the Italian Archbishop who also represents the Holy Father in São Tomé and Príncipe reflected on the qualities of true prophets.

“The prophet is first and foremost a man of God. His relationship is with God and that is why it is fundamental, in order to recover the meaning of prophecy, to rediscover the meaning of our relationship with God, to rediscover our relationship of faith with the Lord, because we do not become prophets by self-election, but by vocation, by calling from on high, prophecy is not an autogenous charism, but a gift that comes from on high,” he explained.

According to the 60-year-old Archbishop, “In a Church that sometimes runs the risk of losing itself in the efficiency of organization, or that runs the risk of losing itself in a purely horizontal dimension of the Gospel, we must, as consecrated persons, know how to discover the meaning of faith, that is, of adherence to the person of the Lord, of knowing how to be heart to heart with Him.” 

“The first commitment that characterizes the Lord's call is in fact to be with him, to learn to be with him; the rest follows as a consequence,” he said, and added, “The prophet is a man of God who lives a vertical relationship with the Lord, an upward relationship, but precisely because it is an upward relationship that requires an in-depth encounter.”

“That is why we are called to live prophecy as a recollection within ourselves,” he said.

João Vissesse contributed in the writing of this story