Let’s “facilitate” Participation in Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year: Catholic Bishops in Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe

Pope Francis announced the start of a Year of Prayer on 21 January 2024 in preparation for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, the second in his Pontificate after the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015.

He said that the 2025 Jubilee Year will be “a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in one’s personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world.”

Months later, on the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ on 9 May 2024, the Holy Father solemnly proclaimed the upcoming Jubilee Year 2025 at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, during which he delivered the Bull of Indiction of the planned Jubilee, “Spes non confundit” (Hope does not disappoint).

The Jubilee Year provides the people of God across the globe an opportunity to participate in various planned jubilee events at the Vatican and in their respective Episcopal Sees and ICLSAL.

In the communique following their five-day First Ordinary Plenary Assembly that concluded on February 28, CEAST members have also recommended the creation of new Episcopal Sees, which they say can “improve pastoral proximity and foster a stronger sense of communion within the Church.”

They have also underscored the “urgency of regularizing social security for clergy, religious men and women, and Church institution workers.”

In response to what they termed pressing environmental concerns, CEAST members have expressed their support for the Miombo Initiative, a program aimed at conserving Angola’s biosphere and biodiversity, which face serious ecological threats.

They have also called upon political leaders in Angola to ensure that the country’s 50th independence celebrations are marked by values of peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, and mercy.

“Independence should be a true jubilee, inspiring a vision for the future that promotes unity rather than divisions,” the Catholic Church leaders say about the Golden Jubilee of the independence of the Southern African nation.

They warn against vengeance and a focus on past negative memories and urge political leaders in the country to “instil a spirit of tolerance and democracy in the younger generations.”

“Avoiding hate speech and reopening past wounds is essential to fostering a tolerant, pluralistic, and democratic mindset among new generations,” they say.

CEAST members also recommend a “reassessment of public recruitment processes in the health and education sectors to address staffing challenges, particularly in remote areas of the country.”