“We ask for your continued prayers”: IMBISA Standing Committee ahead of Plenary Assembly, Golden Jubilee

IMBISA brings together Catholic Church leaders in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In the March 29 statement, members of the IMBISA Standing Committee highlight the reason for their coming together, saying they met “to address important matters facing our region and to plan for the future of the Church’s mission in Southern Africa.”

During their two-day meeting that concluded on March 28, they “talked about the importance of establishing a formal relationship between IMBISA and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to strengthen our collective efforts toward peace, justice, and development in the region.”

They also “expressed concern over the ongoing post-election violence in Mozambique, the rising levels of corruption and unemployment in the region.”

“We continue to pray for peace and good governance and the well-being of all people in our region,” members of the IMBISA Standing Committee say in their statement, echoing the teachings of Pope Francis in the Encyclical Letters Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Sì.

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The IMBISA officials also weighed in on the funding suspension that the Donald Trump-led government is set to effect, including subsidies through the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) USAID and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as well as the U.S. withdrawal from the World Heald Organization (WHO).

Withdrawing the USAID funding, they say, “has a detrimental impact on the services in the Church’s institutions.”

They go on to laud countries in the Southern Africa region that have held peaceful general elections last year, saying, “We celebrated the peaceful transfer of power in some of the countries in our region following the national elections in 2024. We congratulate all those who are elected, ensuring a peaceful transition of leadership. This is a strong testament to the resilience of the democratic process.”

“We also commend the election of the first female president in our region in Namibia,” IMBISA Standing Committee members say referring to the election of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as Namibia’s fifth president, the first female to hold such office in the country. 

In their meeting, they also weighed in on Mozambique’s October 2024 general elections, which opposition political parties contested, sparking post-election unrest in the Southern Africa nation.

In the March 29 statement, they implore for God’s guidance in their efforts “to build a more united and effective Church” in the IMBISA region.

“May our leaders be inspired to serve their people with justice, integrity, and a commitment to the common good,” they further implore.