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We’ve Leaders Who “don't feel” Citizens’ Plight: Catholic Bishop in Angola Laments Political Leaders’ Indifference

Bishop Maurício Agostinho Camuto of Caxito Diocese in Angola. Credit: Radio Ecclesia

The Southern African nation of Angola has leaders, who are not keen on providing services to the citizens, Bishop Maurício Agostinho Camuto of the country’s Catholic Diocese of Caxito has noted with concern.  

In his homily on the annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2024 marked on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Bishop Camuto faulted Angola’s political leaders for remaining indifferent to the plight of the ordinary citizens. 

“It's impossible to believe that we have leaders who have no heart, no soul, because they don't suffer with the people, they don't feel the suffering of the people,” he said during the Eucharistic celebration at Good Shepherd Kikolo Parish of his Episcopal See.

The Local Ordinary of Caxito Diocese further lamented, “It's a shame that our leaders don’t see that our people lack roads, food, water and other basic social amenities for their welfare.”

“You can only be a leader if you feel what the people feel,” the Angolan member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Holy Ghost Fathers/Spiritans) said, and emphasized, “Those who don't feel the suffering of the people are not fit to be leaders.” 

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He further faulted Angola’s leaders for not manifesting leadership traits, saying, “He who is capable of having compassion for the people can be a leader.” 

“The proof is that those who govern us don't live where we live.  If they did, they would have solved our problems, but they don't; they live far away, they live in condominiums or apartments, with paved streets, no ponds, no standing water, no mud, because if they lived here in this neighbourhood of Kikolo, they would have helped to solve the situation or the conditions," he said. 

The Local Ordinary of Caxito Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in August 2020 challenged Christians in the civil service to show their faith in bringing about positive change.

“We know that among the members of the public administration there are Christians, there are people who pray, but things don't change,” he said, and posed, “What do these Christians do? They come to church and pray with us, don't they?”

The 61-year-old Catholic Bishop called upon political leaders in Angola to change from their “selfish interests” and embrace altruism, attending to the needs of ordinary citizens, who “voted them in office for service.”

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João Vissesse is an Angolan Journalist with a passion and rich experience in Catholic Church Communication and Media Apostolate.