10 Nov 2013

The Vice President, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe is expected to welcome bishops at the official opening ceremony of the 10th plenary assembly of Bishops of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa on November 12 at Christ the King Cathedral.

According to a press release from the Catholic diocese of Gaborone, the ceremony would take place in Gaborone from November 11-15. About 70 bishops would attend the historic week long assembly officially known as the Inter-regional Meeting of Bishops in Southern Africa (IMBISA) whose theme is: The Family.

It said the Catholic Church considered The Family’ as the basic building block of the church and society. African culture, the release said, was fundamentally  a culture of the family, even the first African Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1994 declared that the church in Africa should be understood as a family.

It stated that the Bishops of IMBISA were glad that young families in their region got support from small Christian communities and young family associations. They appreciated the cooperation that exists between church and state in the care and protection of the family through appropriate legislation.

The bishops, the release stated, were concerned by the many factors that undermined Christian family life, such as labour migration and unemployment resulting in long absences of men from their families, the increasing number of single parent families and certain outdated traditional customs such as polygamy, excessive bride wealth payments and the abuse of women.

The agenda of the assembly would also cover recent political and economic developments in the region, such as democratic elections, political violence and corruption. Furthermore, the release stated that the Catholic Church had about 2500 election observers at the recent Zimbabwean elections which included bishops, priests, nuns and activists of justice and peace.

This it said was done to underline the Church’s desire to promote good governance, peace and prosperity in the Southern African region which was still threatened by economic injustice and human rights violations. Ends