Lwena, 05 February, 2024 / 9:23 pm (ACI Africa).
Bishop Martín Lasarte Topolansky of Angola’s Lwena Diocese has called upon the new Deacon he ordained on February 3 to remain faithful to his vow of celibacy.
One of the three evangelical counsels, celibacy for members of the Clergy requires that they remain unmarried and sexually abstinent in their following of Jesus Christ, who chaste and poor achieved sanctification for humanity. Other Evangelical Counsels are poverty and obedience, the latter lived by Jesus Christ, especially when he accepted the death of the cross.
In his homily during the Diaconate ordination of Seminarian Rosário Kahalo Linha, Bishop Lasarte urged him to live the “gospel of service”.
“Strictly observe celibacy,” he told the Deacon-elect, and described the Evangelical Counsel as one that will make him “totally available without limit to the service of God's people, following the example of Jesus Christ and the apostles.”
Presiding over his first ordination since his Episcopal Consecration on 3 September 2023, the Uruguayan-born member of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) called upon the Deacon-elect to live a life of prayer and exercise prudence.
