Angola and the Vatican State signed the framework agreement in Rome in 2019, an instrument that defines the legal framework for relations between the Catholic Church and the Angolan State and recognises the public legal personality of the Church and its institutions.
According to CEAST spokesman Belmiro Chissengueti, after signing the legal instrument "there is a need for its regulation so that the aspects at hand can have the way or the way to do it, to operate on the ground.
At the end of the hearing that the President, João Lourenço, granted to the Catholic bishops, the Catholic prelate stated that on that occasion they "urged" the head of state to "work together" for the regulation of various aspects of the framework agreement.
The agreement "is already in force in the Angolan legal system, since 21 November 2019, and is of immediate application," he said, noting that "there is always the problem of how to do it.
For the Bishop of Cabinda, the article on the holding of a single religious wedding ceremony for later transcription to the civil registers is included in the presuppositions that should be regulated.
"Because the question is who will do it, how, where to do it, what time will be proclaimed, what relationship will be established between the ecclesial and state parties, so this has to be regulated," he argued.
Diplomas of ecclesiastical universities, especially the modalities and criteria for their recognition, as well as tax exemptions on donations and other means that serve the Church "must also be regulated," he argued.
For the spokesman of CEAST, regulation "is always the legal means that allows the operators of law and economy to have a clear notion of their responsibilities.
At a hearing held at the Presidential Palace in the upper city of Luanda, 17 bishops attended.
The Catholic prelates held their first ordinary Plenary Assembly at the Muxima sanctuary in Luanda from 3 to 9 March.
