Credit: ACI Africa
“RCMSSA also aims to share and deal with common concerns and challenges among the National Conferences in the region,” the Catholic Nun who was part of the 17 August 2021 meeting said.
She added, “We wish to support and learn from one another, to create mechanisms for collaboration and dialogue with the Regional Episcopal Conference.”
“RCMSSA will also maintain regular contact with the Holy See, COMSAM and IMBISA, and will collaborate in the area of Formation and other social justice matters. We wish to share human resources and other resources,” Sr. Shibambu further said.
Credit: ACI Africa
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She continued, “We are not going to be duplicating anything that the local or the national conferences will be doing; we are not going to be doing or duplicating anything that individual Congregations will be doing.”
“Our focus is to coordinate Religious Life, from that regional context, where we want to make sure that we foster that spirit of Religious Life within the region,” she said, and reiterated, “We want to build unity and foster more effective cooperation, to ensure that the Church in Southern Africa is alive and growing. We want to give support to one another and learn from one another.”
In his address to participants during the May 14 RCMSSA launch, Archbishop Robert Christopher Ndlovu shared words of encouragement.
Credit: ACI Africa
Archbishop Ndlovu said, “I encourage you and those who are going to be handling this baby on a day-to-day basis will be conscious of what you have discerned together and make sure that really it comes to fruition.”
Credit: ACI Africa
“I honestly pray that what you've started today may bear fruit; that it may have an impact in the region, and I pray that this diversity of religious Congregations will be enriching; that you may share the best practices amongst yourselves with your particular specific characters for the benefit of the Congregations and the Church”, the Local Ordinary of Harare Archdiocese who doubles as the President of Zimbabwe’s Catholic Bishops Conference said during the May 14 event.
Sheila Pires is a veteran radio and television Mozambican journalist based in South Africa. She studied communications at the University of South Africa. She is passionate about writing on the works of the Church through Catholic journalism.