AFRICA/ANGOLA - “Angola on the path to Hope”: Catholic Bishops of Angola issue pastoral letter on 2nd anniversary of peace agreement

Wednesday, 31 March 2004

Luanda (Fides Service)- To mark the second anniversary of peace agreement the Catholic Bishops of Angola have issued a Pastoral letter “Angola on the Path to Hope” in which they reflect on the country’s social, economic and political situation.
Presenting the Letter Bishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Diasm, Auxiliary of Luanda, explained that the title was chosen because the peace agreement signed on 4 April 2002 between the government and the rebels UNITA planted hope in the hearts of Angolan people for a better future especially with regard to standard of living and social services.
The Bishops recall that there is still fighting in the Cabinda enclave cut off from the rest of the territory by a strip of land belonging to the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC). “Our hope for peace includes also the war in Cabinda where our brothers are locked in armed combat and where the main victims are, as always, old people, women and children”.
The Bishops stress the need to guarantee “law over force” affirming that “life is a primary value in our culture. This is why it is difficult for an African to think of a family without children. For the same reason the death of a child is a tragedy, which only faith in Christ can illuminate and only Christian hope can console. In opposition to this culture of life, three decades of war in Angola have produced a culture of death worsening the situation of poverty and producing an infant mortality rate which is a world record and lowest expected life span of forty years ”.
War destroyed the country’s economy, the Bishops say. 30 years ago Angola was a major producer and exporter of food. Today it depends of international aid to feed its people. “We must eliminate hunger or hunger will eliminate us” say the Bishops and they call for agricultural policies which aim for national food sufficiency.
The Bishops also warn that steps must be taken to stop the scourge of spreading AIDS: “we fully support the government and President when they call AIDS a plague”. The Bishops call for united efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS putting into practice the teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to marriage and human sexuality. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 31/3/2004, righe 34 parole 418)


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