Catholic Bishops in Angola have called on the state to take action against churches that undermine the “life and social harmony of families.” Speaking to journalists after a meeting of religious leaders with Angola’s Interior Minister, the Secretary General of the Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe (CEAST) said, “These churches should be banned from continuing on this path.”
“Government must take action against churches that attack life, attack children, attack sacredness, and attack the family,” Bishop Maurício Agostinho Camuto told journalists in Luanda, the capital of Angola Tuesday, November 14. He added, “The family is sacred. These churches attack social harmony and peace. These churches should be banned from continuing on this path.”
The Angolan Catholic Bishop said churches whose actions have no impact on social life should also be banned. “Many of these churches are only after the money of the faithful, after the money of the citizens, and that’s not right,” the Secretary General of CEAST said.
The Local Ordinary of Angola’s Caxito Diocese said, “There are also churches that function as money laundering centers, and the Ministry of the Interior should be a little more attentive.” “There are also churches whose theology is confused, and they sow confusion among citizens,” the Angolan member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CSSp.), also known as the Spiritans or Holy Ghost Fathers said.
Bishop Camuto said the government must put in place criteria for “evaluating the actions of churches, how and when they should be considered a church, we have to look at their theology, their doctrine, their morals.” “You have to see if their pastors are really trained in theology or not. It can’t be just anyone who shows up, on any given day and in any given place, claiming to be a pastor, a prophet, or an apostle; that can’t be the case, and that doesn’t exist in serious countries,” Bishop Camuto said.
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