AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - 100 bishops from Southern Africa meet in Pretoria

Pretoria (Agenzia Fides) - About 100 Bishops from Angola, São Tomé e Principe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland are in Pretoria (South Africa) from 6 to 13 December, for the inter-regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (MBISA). The Bishops will discuss governance, ethics and financial autonomy in the post-colonial era, according to a statement sent to Fides.
According to Father Richard Menatsi, director of IMBISA and priest of the Diocese of Mthatha, South Africa, “the Bishops need time to discuss areas of common interest. Southern Africa has seen so many traumas over the past 20 years and we need to assess how much the region has succeeded in addressing the issues of service provision and accountability. The Church is about peoples' lives.”
The meeting includes a workshop on governance within the Church, focused on how the Church is becoming self-sufficient.
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg and President of the Bishops' Conference of Southern Africa (SACBC) will attend the meeting and will welcome the Bishops of the Catholic Church Regina Mundi in Soweto Sunday, 12 December. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 06/12/2010)