IMBISA Plenary Delegates Urged to Nurture “mature faith” to Address Declining Youth Presence in Church

Manzini, 29 September, 2025 / 4:52 PM

The declining youth presence in Church in the member countries of the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA) can be addressed by investing in the nurturing of “mature faith”, Bishop Raymond Tapiwa Mupandasekwa of Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Catholic Diocese has said. 

In his homily during the Sunday, September 28 closing Mass of the 14th Plenary Assembly and Golden Jubilee of IMBISA, Bishop Tapiwa also urged the delegates at the September 24–29 double event to begin by engaging young people to understand why they are no longer interested in Church activities. 

“As Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, and Religious in South Africa, we must set this as our standard. Perhaps what keeps our young people away is that they are afraid to see in us a faith worth following, worth living for, and worth dying for,” Bishop Tapiwa said.

Referring to 1 Timothy 6:11-16, the Second Reading of the day, the Catholic Bishop underlined the need for IMBISA members to facilitate the nurturing of “mature faith” among young people. 

“Those following behind must see a mature faith, a generational faith that has come through our founding fathers like the faith of Timothy, which Paul says came through Lois, his grandmother, and Eunice, his mother, and now has been handed down to him,” Bishop Tapiwa said during the closing Mass of the six-day event held at Mavuso Trade Centre in Eswatini’s only Catholic Diocese of Manzini.

He continued, “In the face of diminishing numbers of young people who are coming to church, how can IMBISA explore new ways of bringing our young people to their faith? Perhaps it must begin by asking and by listening to them.”

He added in reference to the day’s second reading, “Paul does not mince his words about what sort of person Timothy must be and what sort of people we all must be. He says to Timothy and to us: After 50 years, aim to be saints.”

Just as Jesus asked the weeping woman in the resurrection scene in the Gospel of St. John, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Bishop Tapiwa said, “we too must take time to ask our young people, ‘Why are you distancing yourselves from the Church?’”

Eswatini hosted the September 24 – 29 double celebration of the 14th Plenary Assembly and the Golden Jubilee. The Golden Jubilee celebration has been organized on the theme, “IMBISA Golden Jubilee: A Synodal journey, nourished by compassion and blossoming in faith as pilgrims of hope.” 

Earlier before the onset of the double celebration, Bishop José Luís Gerardo Ponce de León of the country’s Catholic Diocese of Manzini had,  in a press briefing on August 27, disclosed that 120 delegates drawn from the nine countries of IMBISA, including Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Clergy, women, and men Religious, and Laity, would grace the Jubilee celebration.

IMBISA brings together members from Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

In his September 28 homily, Bishop Tapiwa said the Jubilee, marking 50 years since the establishment of IMBISA in 1975, is a source of good news to share. He said, “We celebrate our jubilee, noting the responsibility we have to hand on the faith to future generations.”

“We are being challenged to live this faith not in the future, not in the past, celebrating our having lived it, but to live it now in our current trying times,” he said, and added, “We must give witness to our faith now.”

Bishop Tapiwa encouraged the delegates at the six-day event to practice patience and gentleness while handling situations in trying times just the same way Paul advised Timothy.

“How do we, by our own riches, prepare our people to live through this valley of the shadow of death? What manual is there to follow except the life of the leaders of faith? In these concrete existential situations, Paul is charging Timothy to live his faith in love and patience and gentleness,” he said.

Acknowledging how difficult it can be when one is under siege, the Bishop urged IMBISA members to act with compassion towards the suffering and the marginalized, including the youths, to “journey together with our brothers and sisters under siege.”