Luanda, 24 September, 2025 / 6:59 pm (ACI Africa).
Members of the Bishops' Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe (CEAST) have warned of a growing “crisis of hope” marked by frustration, insecurity, inequality, and poverty, urging leaders to pursue dialogue, reconciliation, social justice, and attentiveness to the people.
In a communique at the end of their September 17-22 CEAST Second Annual Plenary Assembly, the Catholic Bishops noted that the “lack of prospects for youth, hunger, unemployment, and fear of the future are corroding the soul of the Angolan people.”
In the communique that CEAST Spokesperson, Bishop Belmiro Cuica Chissengueti of the Catholic Diocese of Cabinda, presented to journalists on September 22, the Catholic Bishops denounced the “instrumentalization of poverty” and criticized the “manipulation of consciences through ineffective public policies and programs that fail to resolve the structural problems of the people.”
They further noted that the youth, in particular, face abandonment, with opportunities concentrated in the hands of a small group, while the majority is excluded.
CEAST members expressed concern about the “erosion of the family fabric,” aggravated by the “absence of effective family-support policies and the weakening of the moral and spiritual education of the youth.”
