{"id":5389,"date":"2026-04-10T13:14:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/?p=5389"},"modified":"2026-04-10T13:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:14:50","slug":"angola-in-a-country-still-fragmented-the-church-is-an-essential-point-of-reference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/angola-in-a-country-still-fragmented-the-church-is-an-essential-point-of-reference\/","title":{"rendered":"Angola: In a country still fragmented, the Church is an essential point of reference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Msgr. Jos\u00e9 Manuel Imbamba of Saurimo, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Angola. Photo: Radio Ecclesia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cThe Holy Father will find a mature Church, a Church that knows how to respond to the many challenges of faith as well as to social and cultural issues; a young, joyful, and missionary Church that looks to universality and begins to offer its sons and daughters for the good of humanity,\u201d said Msgr. Jos\u00e9 Manuel Imbamba of Saurimo, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Angola, one of the four African countries the Pope will visit from April 18 to 21.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By Agenzia Fides *<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope that the Holy Father’s visit will strengthen and encourage us so that, in the face of the various problems we encounter, we do not waver, so that we may continue to be living witnesses of God’s love, here in our concrete reality and in the reality of the world,\u201d the President of the Angolan Bishops’ Conference continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Angolan people have endured a long period of colonization and, at times, very severe conflicts, which have profoundly shaped the nation’s soul and whose repercussions are clearly visible in the country’s socio-political situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bishops of IMBISA during the opening Mass of the Plenary, in Matshapa, in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Photo: Vatican<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe colonization process in Angola was a very lengthy process that profoundly shaped the consciousness of Angolan citizens\u2014a process that humiliated, enslaved, discriminated against, and, in a sense, erased their cultural identity. And, of course, this is a burden, a very heavy legacy,\u201d Msgr. Imbamba emphasizes. \u201cAfter independence 50 years ago, the country unfortunately entered a bloody war, which further shattered and delayed what little had been achieved and led to divisions, poverty, exclusion, and an excessive politicization of the population.\u201d According to the president of the Bishops’ Conference, achieving a true Angolan identity remains a distant goal due to problems in national politics such as corruption, cronyism, greed, and a lack of love for their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, Angola is very fragmented; political parties count for more than anything else. Angola is, in a sense, trapped by the parties, and when that happens, the country naturally falls behind,\u201d explains Msgr. Imbamba. \u201cThis is not yet the country we envision. Reconciliation is needed. There is a need for social forgiveness, a need to depoliticize minds, consciences, public institutions, and family life so that the dream of Angola is born from social embrace, born from the coexistence we all desire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caritas team of Angola, during the National Week of Solidarity in 2022. Photo: Vativan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Poverty, unemployment, and national debt are among the major problems plaguing the country and its people. In this context, the Church is an essential point of reference for the most important issues facing Angola, given that 60% of the population is Catholic. \u201cA vibrant and so fruitful Church that theological and philosophical seminaries no longer have room for our candidates for the priesthood,\u201d says Msgr. Imbamba, who specifies: \u201cThere are currently about 1,600 major seminarians, more than 1,500 diocesan priests, over 600 religious priests, and more than 1,700 religious sisters.\u201d \u201cThe Church in Angola is currently served by 20 dioceses and is a Church that establishing itself, expanding, and cherishing the dream of founding further dioceses to enable a more dynamic pastoral ministry, a pastoral ministry of closeness,\u201d explains the President of the Angolan Bishops\u2019 Conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are also strongly committed to the laity, through whom we are represented in the world of science, culture, technology, politics, and sociology\u2014in all these areas that we try to support through Catholic schools, our colleges, and the Catholic University.\u201d Thus, it is a Church that wants to establish itself as a moral authority and a life-giving force within society and that eagerly anticipates the Pope\u2019s visit. A very young, very welcoming Church, but one that also has many downsides due to the historical developments the country is currently undergoing. \u201cIt is about recognizing merits and fostering the harmony we all desire through open and honest dialogue, by building bridges of harmony and encounter so that we can reach a consensus in the name of Angola and the Angolans. All of these are problems that are becoming increasingly acute due to the current global situation,\u201d concludes the President of the Angolan Bishops\u2019 Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Agenzia Fides is the news agency of the Vatican.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caritas team of Angola, during the National Week of Solidarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,250,6,20,4],"tags":[41,388,387],"class_list":["post-5389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-church","category-featured","category-mission","category-news","tag-angola","tag-bishop","tag-imbisa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5396,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions\/5396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}