Huambo — Twenty religious denominations that act illegally, of the 68 registered by the Administration of the municipality of Huambo, will be closed this year, as they do not meet the requirements for their regularization, ANGOP learned.
The information is contained in the final communiqué of the II ordinary session of the Administration of the Municipality of Huambo, headquarters of the province with the same name, which took place on Thursday, under the guidance of administrator Azevedo Manuel Cambiambia.
The document, received by ANGOP, indicates the control of 105 churches, 68 of which are illegal religious denominations and 17 in the process of being legalized, many of them with inadequate facilities and at risk of collapsing.
To this end, the authorities will set up a multi-sectoral commission to reinforce inspection actions and consequently determine the overthrow of these religious denominations, both illegal and those that are in precarious conditions for accommodating the faithful.
With this measure, it is said, the aim is to prevent the proliferation of religious sects, which take the opportunity to extort the faithful and, at the same time, disseminate 'negative ideologies' capable of inciting harmful behavior in communities.
Reacting to the position of local authorities, the secretary of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola (CICA) in the province of Huambo, pastor Euclides dos Santos, called for the cautious legalization of religious confessions in the country, to avoid religions that are not committed to humanization.
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He said that government authorities must follow exhaustive criteria for determining Churches, through rigorous observance of methods present in religious sciences and other social models that take into account human values, such as Christianity and moral and civic education.
Likewise, he denounced the existence of religious sects that contribute to the de-virtualization of the ecclesiastical and evangelical argument, betting on a discourse of financial success without labor effort and, at the same time, on behaviors that promote family disunity and the accusation of practicing witchcraft, mainly in children and the elderly.
The religious man proposed the development of effective and appropriate methodologies to prevent the proliferation of illegal churches, as well as intensifying permanent dialogue in order to institutionalize religious denominations committed to common well-being.
He said that CICA defined, for this year, the expansion of social programs related to blood donation and cleaning campaigns, visits to penitentiaries, shelter homes, distribution of basic necessities and the promotion of ethical principles in communities, to the practical implementation of biblical teachings.
CICA has a composition, in this region of the country, of 16 Christian Churches.
