OFM Capuchins in Angola Urged to Live among the People, “experience their pains and hopes”

Luanda, 28 August, 2025 / 5:02 PM

Members of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (Capuchins/OFM Cap) in Angola have been urged to live among the people they serve, bearing fruit for the Church and the wider community. 

In his homily at the Order’s 3rd Ordinary and Elective Provincial Chapter, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Luanda emphasized that the Chapter should be a moment of inner renewal, spiritual commitment, and ecclesial fruitfulness rather than merely administrative or juridical organization. 

“The true portrait of a missionary is one who lives among the communities, overcomes difficulties, announces the Gospel, the Good News; who speaks, lives with, and coexists with the people,” Bishop António Lungieki Pedro Bengui said on Tuesday, August 26.

Bishop António encouraged the Friars to live the mission as a concrete and transformative presence within communities.

“It is not enough to be physically present; it is necessary to live among the people, to share life, to speak their language, to welcome their pains and hopes, and to proclaim to them with truth and joy the Gospel,” the Angolan Catholic Bishop said  in his message on the  the third day of the August 24-28 Chapter.

He said, “The Friars’ closeness to the people must be a natural expression of his consecration. Communities arise, and in the midst of communities, they proclaim the Gospel, they speak, they live together, and they coexist.”

The Catholic Church leader emphasized that the place where the Consecrated Person lives should not be merely functional or physical, but a space that generates life, “no longer a decorated space, but one transformed into a school of life.”

“This being in the midst goes beyond doing. It is a way of being present, of being a sign of a Church that goes forth, living in the very heart of people’s lives,” Bishop António said.

He noted that “the authenticity of spiritual fruit depends on the personal adherence of each consecrated person to the mission entrusted to him.” 

The Chapter meeting brought together more than 80 Friars on the theme, “Rediscover and Re-propose the Values of Franciscan Life.”

In his August 26 homily, Bishop António described the Chapter meeting as an opportunity to rekindle the fire of the Franciscan charism, “not out of nostalgia, but in creative fidelity, to rediscover and re-propose fraternal life is to reconnect with that which sustains and gives meaning to our vocation.”

“The Chapter is a time of listening to the Spirit and of active fidelity to the charism,” he said, adding that the meeting “is not only an assembly of decisions, but a celebration of our belonging and a new beginning of our mission.”

“The Chapter is spiritual before it is juridical. It is commitment before it is the norm. It is the renewal of the heart before it is the reform of statutes,”  the 51-year-old Catholic Bishop said.