LUANDA APRIL 7, 2017 (CISA) – The Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST)has accused the government of lacking the political will needed to allow Catholic-owned Radio Ecclesia’s expansion plans.
Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias, President of CEAST said the Angolan government “lacked the political will needed to allow the extension of Radio Ecclésia’s signal to the whole country.”
The Archbishop said that while continuing to advance promises and excuses to the Catholic Church, the Angolan government was busy approving the emergence of new radios stations in the country.
Archbishop Filomeno was addressing a press conference held to coincide with the end of CEAST’s first plenary assembly for the year 2017 March 31, Vatican Radio reported.
He noted that the matter of Radio Ecclésia was one of the issues recently discussed between the Bishops and the government.
In 2014, then Apostolic Nuncio to Angola, Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, also spoke about his sadness concerning the confinement of Radio Ecclésia to the capital city of Luanda by the authorities.
The Apostolic Nuncio expressed the view that, “The people (of Angola) have a great need to benefit from the Radio’s socio-development and spiritual broadcasts.”
Just before the visit of Pope Benedict XVI’s to Angola in 2009, the Bishops again appealed to the Republican President, José Eduardo Dos Santos, to allow the radio station broadcast its programmes country-wide. The request was not granted.
Radio Ecclésia broadcasts on 97.5 FM frequency to Luanda for 24 hours a day and only for one hour a day throughout Angola, on short wave.
