Bishop Leopoldo Ndakalako urges consecrated persons to reject careerism, embrace self-gift, and engage technology with discernment and faith.
Newsroom (30/01/2026 Gaudium Press ) At the opening of the Second Assembly of the Regional Conference of Major Superiors of Southern Africa (RCMSSA), Bishop Leopoldo Ndakalako delivered a deeply reflective message urging religious men and women to rediscover the heart of their vocation. Consecrated life, he said, must not drift into the realm of status or profession but remain a living expression of self-gift—a “living parable” of the Gospel.
“Consecrated life is not a career. It is a sacrament of coherence and fidelity to God,” the Bishop of Menongue said in his January 27 homily at the Mama Muxima Spirituality Center. Speaking as President of the Episcopal Commission for the Clergy and Consecrated Life of the Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe (CEAST), he called on consecrated persons to remain authentic witnesses rather than functionaries within church structures.
A Call Beyond Titles and Roles
Bishop Ndakalako’s remarks placed renewed emphasis on the spiritual depth of consecration—a vocation rooted not in hierarchy or visibility, but in total availability. “Consecrated Life is not a status; it is transparency, a life of sacrifice, a life given entirely to God and to brothers and sisters,” he said, adding that the true sign of consecration is coherence between faith and life.
The bishop described consecrated persons as “the Gospel in the flesh,” called to incarnate hope and faith in societies often fractured by injustice and uncertainty. In this way, Consecrated Life becomes “an offered existence,” he said, one that maintains credibility only when marked by humility, joy, and faithfulness to the original call—what he termed the “Galilee of vocation.”
Faith, Technology, and the Modern Conscience
In one of the homily’s most striking passages, Bishop Ndakalako pivoted toward the moral and spiritual challenges posed by technology and artificial intelligence. Warning against the depersonalizing effects of automation, he stressed that AI must never replace human discernment or conscience.
“We live in an era in which algorithms choose, recommend, filter, and decide,” he said. “Artificial intelligence is not an enemy of faith, but it becomes dangerous when it replaces discernment and reduces the person to data.”
He invited consecrated persons to serve as “living memories of the primacy of the person” in a world increasingly defined by calculation, speed, and consumption. “In a world that calculates, we must contemplate. In a world that accelerates, we must discern. In a world that consumes, we must safeguard and preserve. In a world that measures, we must love,” he urged.
Rekindling the Spirit of Communion
The assembly, which runs from January 27 to February 3 under the theme “Consecrated for the mission, walking together in hope and communion,” seeks to strengthen unity among institutes and societies of apostolic life across Southern Africa. Its subtheme, “Memory, identity, and discernment for the future,” reflects the assembly’s effort to revisit founding charisms while adapting to evolving pastoral realities.
Also addressing participants, RCMSSA President Fr. Joaquim José Luís Pedro highlighted the power of common journey and collaboration. “There are paths that only emerge when many walk together,” he said, emphasizing that communion helps “overcome obstacles, create new paths, and strengthen the mission of consecrated life in the region.”
Toward a Prophetic Future
For Bishop Ndakalako, the renewal of consecrated life in Africa depends not only on faithful witness but on critical engagement with the changing world. He urged participants to make their conference “a critical conscience, organized hope, communal prophecy, and boldness for a better future.”
His appeal—at once pastoral and prophetic—captures a central tension of modern religious life: how to remain rooted in the transcendent while navigating a digital age that prizes speed over silence. In that struggle, Bishop Ndakalako suggested, the consecrated person’s vocation remains clear: to embody the Gospel as “a living parable,” fully offered to God and to others.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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