Category: Pastoral Letters & Bishop Statements

We do not “go to Church”

Posted on by Bishop Jose Luis

by Bp José Luis IMC

At the beginning of this year our diocese launched the very first “online survey” offering everyone in the diocese the opportunity to share – as baptised and sent – about our journey together.

The word to keep in mind is: “everyone”.

Thinking of the spaces our diocese offers to share on our Christian journey, we realised that only those who are members of a parish council, or a specific sodality are able to do so. The rest, which might be the majority of our Christian community, has not been given that space. In fact, when asked in the survey “which spaces does your Church offer you to share your views, concerns, ideas”, many answered “none”. That is why we launched an “online survey” and that is why we will be placing “suggestion boxes” in every parish for those who would prefer to do it in a different way. Continue reading “We do not “go to Church”” →

Lent: becoming God’s children

Posted on by Vusizwe Motsa

By Bp José Luis IMC

 Livi laba yinyama!

We start today our Lenten Journey towards Easter. This is a time of grace, of God’s grace. For the next 40 days we will keep our eyes fixed on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Among other things, Easter is for us that special day when – together with the whole Church all over the world – we will renew our baptismal promises. Not that they expire! Baptism promises do not come with the type of indication we find in the food: sell by, best before, expires on… We renew them out of love, like couples renew theirs. We once again want to make it clear who it is we choose: Jesus or Satan.

Our baptismal promises remind us of our being “children of God”. John in his first letter says: “You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God’s children – which is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Indeed we are God’s children.

Continue reading “Lent: becoming God’s children” →

Blessing of solar panels

Posted on by Vusizwe Motsa

By: Bp José Luis IMC (Bishop of Manzini)

At the beginning of the Season of Creation  we gathered at St Theresa’s Clinic thanking God for the gift of the recently installed solar panels
Below is my address and the prayer we shared

Click HERE for photos of the event

“In 2015 Pope Francis wrote an encyclical letter called “Laudato Si” about the care for creation, our common home.

He writes:  

Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. Yet we are called to be instruments of God our Father, so that our planet might be what he desired when he created it and correspond with his plan for peace, beauty and fullness. The problem is that we still lack the culture needed to confront this crisis. We lack leadership capable of striking out on new paths and meeting the needs of the present with concern for all and without prejudice towards coming generations. (53)

Continue reading “Blessing of solar panels” →

Lone Swaziland bishop says country can’t take painkillers without understanding the pain

Posted on by Vusizwe Motsa

By: Inés San Martín (ROME BUREAU CHIEF)

ROME – As violence continues to grip the small southern Africa nation of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland and the continent’s last remaining monarchy, the country’s lone Catholic bishop says the challenge isn’t just to stop the bloodshed, but to understand why it’s happening.

“We need to understand how we reached to this point,” Bishop José Luis Gerardo Ponce de León told Crux. “It won’t be possible to move forward without it. It would be like going to the doctor because we are in pain and accepting to live on painkillers, without really knowing where the pain comes from.”

The current round of violence began in late May with the murder of a young law student, speaking protests from thousands of people which, in turn, triggered a harsh government crackdown.

Continue reading “Lone Swaziland bishop says country can’t take painkillers without understanding the pain” →