Viana, 10 September, 2024 / 8:50 pm (ACI Africa).
The challenges the people of God in Angola’s Catholic Diocese of Viana may be experiencing should not end in despair, the Local Ordinary has said, and emphasized the need for them to look to God, who journeys with them.
Bishop Emílio Sumbelelo, who was presiding over the closing Mass following his pastoral visit to St. Monica Parish of his Episcopal See highlighted some of the challenging experiences and the fulfilling encounters of God’s people under his pastoral care.
“For some, our time is filled with fascinating achievements, discoveries, and conquests that offer infinite possibilities. However, for others, perhaps the majority, our time is frightening – marked by the planet’s overheating, the destruction of forests, pollution of rivers and seas, hunger, misery, increasingly violent wars, and the looming threat of nuclear disaster,” the Angolan Catholic Bishop said on September 8.
These challenges, he went on to say, “invite us to interpret, seek, and take risks as we navigate this era.”
Bishop Sumbelelo reflected on youths’ challenges, especially the “growing sense of failure and anxiety caused by unemployment and difficult socio-economic conditions.”
