Reconciliation “essential for building prosperous, united, indivisible” Angola: Official of Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Angola, Fr. Epalanga went on to say, “is still deeply affected by a culture of violence, intolerance, and political exclusion. We must work towards peace and unity to build a prosperous, united nation.”

For the Angolan member of the Society of Jesus (SJ/Jesuits), “despite the silence of the guns in most areas, we still hear reports of armed conflict in places like the Maiombe forest. Women continue to suffer, as evidenced by recent murders in Kwanza Norte, where innocent people are shot by police.”

Amid these challenges, the Church is committed to fostering peace and reconciliation, he said.

“In these 23 years of peace, we have had opportunities for economic growth, but too often, selfishness and vanity have led to wasted resources that could have lifted our nation to new heights of development,” Fr. Epalanga said.

Meanwhile, the Local Ordinary of Angola’s Catholic Diocese of Cabinda has urged the people of God to live honestly from their work and cautioned against the attitude of “receiving” handouts. 

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“One of the evils of receiving things without work, without sweat, and not knowing how to enjoy them, happens frequently in our daily lives,” Bishop Belmiro Cuica Chissengueti noted in his homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Graces in Chibodo on March 30.

For instance, Bishop Chissengueti said, “you don’t know the price of a car, so you don’t know how to take care of it, because you haven’t felt the price in your pocket. You don’t know the price of a house, so you don’t treat it well, because it didn’t come from your pocket, etc.”

For the Angolan member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (CSSp./Holy Ghost Fathers/Spiritans), “Wealth that is not worked for disappears very quickly because spending is easy.”

His confrere and compatriot in Angola’s Catholic Diocese of Caxito has called for reconciliation and forgiveness, especially during the Lenten Season. 

In his March 30 homily at St. Anna Cathedral of his Episcopal See, Bishop Maurício Agostinho Camuto said, “In this time of Lent, in this time of judgment, we must convert so that on November 11, we can celebrate our independence festival as a true festival, with open hearts. Not with hearts full of bitterness, full of gold, full of lives, full of anger against each other, against our brothers, no. But with hearts full of joy, filled with peace. So there is a journey to take, a journey we all must take.”

Bishop Camuto emphasized the link between peace and reconciliation, saying, “There is no other way. The way to peace passes through reconciliation. The way to peace passes through love, the love of one another. And that is what God wants for us, to be well with our brothers. That is the way of peace and happiness, there is no other way, no other way.”

“May God make us men and women of reconciliation, men and women of peace,” he implored.

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