Churches in Angola Urged to Create Spaces to Welcome Victims of “political conflicts”

The Angolan member of the Society of Jesus (SJ/Jesuits) said, “Reconciliation is inherent in the nature and mission of the Church itself: it is Christ who came to reconcile people with God, and Christ left us precisely the ministry of reconciliation.”

“Reconciliation is not a concept for politicians and it is not something foreign to the Church itself. Therefore, this is a space of co-responsibility, which must be assumed by the Church,” he said. 

Fr. Epalanga said that though the country has had many political conflicts, the May 27 one was the most difficult to manage.

“We have lost thousands of Angolans, children, young people and adults who could have contributed a lot to the development of the country,” the CCJP official said, and added, “Today we have to look at our history, and learn from the mistakes we made.”

Fr. Epalanga further said reconciliation “not a question of opening wounds but of healing them.” 

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“History is painful, it's true, but it's important, in fact, to connect with history. It is not to open wounds. If the wounds have to be opened, then maybe there's still water in them, we need to clean them, we need to purify them,” he said.

João Vissesse is an Angolan Journalist with a passion and rich experience in Catholic Church Communication and Media Apostolate.