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Youths in Angola Seek to “encounter faith” in Planned Archdiocesan Festival

Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias during the presentation of the Youth Festival in Luanda Archdiocese. Credit: Fest-Jovem

By João Vissesse

Luanda, 10 June, 2024 / 4:30 pm (ACI Africa).

Plans are underway in the Catholic Archdiocese of Luanda in Angola for a youth festival that will offer young people an opportunity to renew their faith in Christ.

In a statement shared with ACI Africa on Monday, June 10, the Catholic Archbishop of Luanda invited young people in his metropolitan See to massively participate in the spiritual exercise scheduled for August 7-11.

Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias said the aim of the festival is to nourish  the Christian spirituality in the Archdiocese, and provide a moment for young people to encounter faith, “so that they can walk together towards Christ, our only hope.”

“We appeal to all young people not to be afraid to be God's dream come true wherever you are; to be God's enchanting radiance in your work or study environment; to be God's touched love and witness to the people of our time,” he said.

Archbishop Dias urged all parish priests, as well as other pastoral workers responsible for the youths in the Archdiocese to be the first mobilizers for festival, “inviting and encouraging all the young people in our communities and parish centers, in our neighborhoods and cities, believers and non-believers, Catholics and non-Catholics, to search for meaning in their lives.”

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In the statement dated June 7, the Angolan-born Archbishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in January 2004 as Auxiliary Bishop of Luanda highlighted the importance of young people in the Church, saying, “Youth is the most exalted period of human life. It is the time of great vigor, of love that transcends barriers. It is the space of great passions for self-realization.”

“Youth is the mirror in which the beauty of God can be contemplated; it is the sacred temple in which the truth of the Most High is constantly revealed. Youth is God's perennial springtime in human history,” Archbishop Dias said.

According to the Archbishop, youthfulness is “the lung” through which the Church breathes and inhales new air. “It is the fertile soil in which God plants love so that the world never ceases to reap hope,” he said.

“Youth is the period in which God offers man the answer to that crucial question of existence: For this reason, only in God, who is the central nucleus of life, can young people find a secure orientation for their existence,” the Local Ordinary of Luanda said.

He noted that in every young person, “God imprints the traces of his eternal goodness, so that the world feels embraced by God's never-ending day, by his eternal Gift.”

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“Whoever says youth is actually expressing hope, the courage to live in the face of the storms that surround daily life,” Archbishop Dias said, and implored, “Let us entrust ourselves to Mama Muxima, the Beloved Mother, the believer par excellence, who, with her life and her total surrender, taught us to reserve the totality and exclusivity of ourselves for God, as true vessels in the potter's hands.”

João Vissesse

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

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