In a Pastoral Letter, “With Deep Surprise: On the Freedom of Sunday Worship,” the Catholic Bishops of the Episcopal Confe-rence of Angola and Sao Tome (CEAST) condemned the practice of holding political party activi-ties and events on days of worship where the faithful, especially civil servants, were obliged to attend. Many locals attend the party acti-vities out of fear of victimisation or reprisals from authorities and local party functionaries.
Presenting the Pastoral Letter at a press conference, on behalf of CEAST, Archbishop Luzizila Kiala of Malanje Archdiocese reiterated that Sunday is a special day of the week dedicated for worship.
Quoting from the Pastoral Letter, the Archbishop denounced the prohibition of “sacred mini-sters – priests and catechists from carrying out any worship and compulsorily forcing them to take part in party political activities.” This, the Archbishop said, goes against the country’s “constitu-tion, human rights, hurts common sense and is out of date.”
India’s poor deserve better than this
Concerns are being raised about whether the needs of poor and marginalized communities in India are receiving enough attention in current government policies. Observers say
