"If I had divine powers to determine the destiny of men, I would have chosen Father Congo as one of those men who should never be able to die", said Raul Tati, regarding the news of the death, in Cabinda, of Jorge Casimiro, a champion of the independence from that enclave.
"I should never know death. This death is, in some way for us, an absolute loss for the people of Cabinda, who for a long time have been carrying a kind of orphanhood, both internally and externally. and now with this loss, that feeling of orphanhood is even more acute", he stressed.
Father Jorge Casimiro Congo died Thursday at dawn at the Cabinda General Hospital, a victim of illness.
Jorge Casimiro Congo, 71 years old, was born in Lândana, in the municipality of Kakongo, in Cabinda province, and was one of the most prominent activists for the separation of Cabinda from Angola, for which reason he was detained on several occasions by the authorities in Luanda.
"Fr Congo, during his life, during his life in the priestly ministry, in the political activism in which he was engaged, taught this path of freedom, of dignity", he added.
Raul Tati, who abandoned the priestly life, was currently a member of UNITA, a party for which he was a deputy in the previous legislature, telling Lusa that he was the prime minister in the shadow of an executive led by this party formation.
Father Jorge Casimiro Congo graduated in Theology and Ancient Languages at the Urbaniana University of Rome, and was parish priest at the Imaculada Conceição church, in Cabinda, where he fed Cabinda independence with his sermons.
In the company of other Cabinda priests, he questioned and opposed the appointment of Bishop Filomeno Vieira Dias to replace Bishop Paulino Madeka, which resulted in him being removed by the Vatican from the Catholic Church.
His reaction was to join the Catholic Church of the Americas, ending up being named bishop of this religious confession, a title he kept until the end.
Former secretary of Education, Science and Technology of the provincial government of Cabinda, which earned him criticism from independence sectors, but which he justified as an opportunity to fight in Cabinda, Casimiro Congo was until the date of his death bishop of the American Catholic Church in Angola .
He was professor of Portuguese and Methodologies at Universidade Lusíada.
In 2003 he participated in the constitution of the Civic Association of Cabinda "Mpalabanda", which would be extinguished two years later by the court for alleged subversion of the constitutional order and an attack on the unity of the State.
Bishop recalls Father Congo as one of the great references of the Catholic Church in Cabinda
The bishop of the diocese of Cabinda, Belmiro Chissengueti, said that it was "with great consternation" that he received the news of the death of Father Jorge Casimiro Congo, one of the great references of the Catholic Church in the province of Cabinda.
In a note, Belmiro Chissengueti highlighted the qualities of Father Congo, whom he met in 1985 when he arrived in Lândana, Cabinda province, in the north of Angola, for the preparatory course in philosophy.
“A man of great intelligence and vast culture, he is one of the great references of the Catholic Church in Cabinda. He made a great contribution in preaching, in streamlining the liturgy, in creating a songbook adapted to the reality of Cabinda, in the creation of local apostolic groups such as Samaritans, Massuela, Lutambi and many others”, recalled the bishop.
Belmiro Chissengueti stressed that Father Congo “was the first to show solidarity in the difficult moments of the diocese, especially in the deaths of priests, making a point of being present”.
“This morning I received, with great consternation, the news of his passing. I lost a good friend”, said the bishop, expressing the desire to “preside over his body mass present in the Immaculate Conception or in São Tiago Maior de Lândana”.
“I hope the family and its members allow me. But if they don't allow it, I'll be there anyway, "he said.
