Roman Catholic Church in Angola

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Outline map of Angola

The Roman Catholic Church in Angola is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church , under the spiritual guidance of the Pope and the Curia in Rome.

History of the Catholic Church in Angola

The papal bull “Romanus Pontifax” in 1456 gave Portugal the right “ to conquer all the islands south of Cap Bojador as far as India and to subdue the local population”. After the occupation of Sao Tome , the Portuguese spread to Angola in 1470 and finally colonized Angola in 1575. A year later, Captain Paulo Dias de Novais founded the city of São Paulo de Loanda and the fortress of Massangano .

The first diocese "Angola e Congo" was founded in 1596; the first bishop was the Portuguese Franciscan Miguel Rangel OFM . In 1620 the bishopric was moved from San Salvador to Luanda and appointed bishopric for the Congo and Angola. Queen Nzinga of Matamba was baptized in 1622 , but fell away from Christianity again and was converted to it a second time in 1656. The Jesuits published a catechism in Kikongo and one in Mbundu in 1624 . The Dutch occupied Luanda from 1641 to 1647 and destroyed all successes in proselytizing until the Portuguese were reconquered. In 1660 the church was built in the Matamba kingdom .

With the ban on the slave trade in 1834, all religious orders in Luanda were also banned . Livingstone came to Luanda in 1854 and found the church used as a workshop. In 1940 the diocese "Angola e Congo" became the Archdiocese of Luanda ; In 1955 the diocese of Sá da Bandeira was founded and from 1957 to 1990 a new diocesan structure with new dioceses.

After independence from Portugal in 1975, all seminary buildings and other educational institutions of the dioceses and orders were nationalized . In 1980 a state decree was issued to register and monitor all churches. In 1992 the Roman Catholic Church received state permission to set up a Catholic university, which began teaching in 1999 as the Catholic University of Angola .

Pope John Paul II visited Angola in 1993, Pope Benedict XVI. was in Cameroon and Angola in March 2009 .

church

In Angola, around 60% of the total population are members of the Catholic Church, i.e. 9.3 million Catholics. There are 18 dioceses and archdioceses united in the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé Confêrencia Episcopal de Angola e São Tomé (CEAST). The chairman of CEAST is the Archbishop of Lubango Gabriel Mbilingi .

Archbishop Petar Rajič was the last representative of the Holy See in Angola with the rank of Apostolic Nuncio until June 15, 2019 . The office of the nuncio includes Angola as well as the island state of São Tomé and Príncipe .

The liturgical language is Portuguese .

Dioceses

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Pope ends the Synod of Bishops -" Will travel to Africa in March "" , Vatican Radio , October 26, 2008