“Very strong, really strong”: SECAM President on Church in Southern Africa, Hails IMBISA on Golden Jubilee

Manzini, 01 October, 2025 / 10:44 AM

The President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has lauded the vitality of the Church in the nine member countries of the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA) as the Catholic Bishops’ association marks 50 years. 

In a September 27 interview with the Communication Officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) on the sidelines of the 14th Plenary Assembly and Golden Jubilee of IMBISA, Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo described the Church in the region as “very strong” despite not being the regional majority. 

Credit: Zonke Tembe

“The Church in this part of Africa, to tell the truth, is very strong. The Church is not a majority, but the Catholic Church is really strong,” Cardinal Ambongo told Sheila Pires on the sidelines of the September 24-29 event held in Eswatini’s only Catholic Diocese of Manzini.

The Local Ordinary of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) explained his presence at the double celebration of IMBISA’s Plenary Assembly and Golden Jubilee. He said, “I'm here to say our congratulations to our brothers who live here for all they are doing for the Church, for the people in Africa.”

Credit: Zonke Tembe

“But I'm here also to encourage our brothers to go on, mainly this year as we are celebrating the jubilee of hope,” said the Congolese member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (OFM Cap) in reference to the ongoing Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year.

In the September 27 interview, Cardinal Ambongo underlined the need for IMBISA members – Catholic Bishops in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa, and Zimbabwe – to work together amid persistent challenges and to foster hope among themselves.

Credit:Zonke Tembe

“We know that if we look at the situation of this part of Africa, there are many, many challenges in different realities—political, economic,” he said, and added, “Sometimes people are suffering. So, we are here together with my brothers to encourage the hope of the people.”

Eswatini hosted the September 24-29 double celebration of the 14th Plenary Assembly and the Golden Jubilee of IMBISA, the latter realized under the theme, “IMBISA Golden Jubilee: A Synodal journey, nourished by compassion and blossoming in faith as pilgrims of hope.”

Ahead of the six-day double celebration, in a press briefing on August 27, Bishop José Luís Gerardo Ponce de León of Manzini Diocese had 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.

Credit: Zonke Tembe

In the September 27 interview, Cardinal Ambongo told the SACBC Communication Officer that the new way of Synodality means communion with others.

“Here in IMBISA, people come from different countries. The reality is that if a Bishop works alone in his own Diocese, he cannot be very strong. Together with others, we are strong, we can work very well,” the President of SECAM explained. 

Referring to his homily on the same day, Cardinal Ambongo said, “The message I (shared) today is also to encourage our brothers and all Bishops to work, but not only alone in their Diocese.”

Credit: Zonke Tembe

“We have to look around at what other Bishops are doing, and so we can put together our experience, our pastoral experience,” he told Ms. Pires during the September 27 interview.