The spokesman for the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST) has dismissed alarmist reports by Portuguese media that 106 young pilgrims from Angola and Cabo Verde have absconded from their delegations in Portuguese.
Anastácio Sasembele – Luanda
The CEAST Spokesman and Head of the Angolan delegation to World Youth Day, Lisbon 2023, told Radio Ecclesia Angola that the reports were inaccurate and misleading.
Bishop Belmiro Cuica Chissengueti of the Angolan Diocese of Cabinda was speaking as leader of the Angolan Angolan delegation.
“We would like to inform our esteemed listeners and also the public that the information indicating that 106 young people from Angola and Cape Verde disappeared from World Youth Day is flawed by its inaccuracy,” said the Bishop.
1 500 registered Angolan pilgrims
According to the Bishop, he, too, had only received reports of defections by two young women from Angola who were not even part of the official registered delegation. Apart from that, there have also been reports of four young African people from a country in central Africa said to have left their delegation.
A total of 1 500 young people are registered under the Angolan delegation.
At a press conference just before departure to Lisbon, Bishop Chissengueti, had urged young people to desist from such behaviour.
