Bishops of IMBISA review region’s pastoral priorities

English Africa Service – Vatican City

IMBISA is the Southern African regional body of Catholic Bishops. The acronym IMBISA stands for Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa. Member countries are Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

The new IMBISA Director, Fr. Dumisani Vilakati has been serving as IMBISA’s Pastoral Director. He takes over from Fr Claudio Dos Reis of Maputo Archdiocese, Mozambique. The outgoing Director has been with IMBISA for ten years.

Coordinated leadership

During this week’s meeting, the Bishops’ standing committee also reviewed progress regarding IMBISA’s main pastoral areas which include: Evangelisation; Safeguarding minors and vulnerable persons; the Environment (Caring for our common home) as well as issues and implications of Co-ordinated Leadership.

Later in an interview, Fr. Vilakati reiterated that IMBISA’s role as an organisation was mostly of facilitation. IMBISA accompanies the various episcopal conferences as they implement policy decisions made by the Bishops themselves.