The remains of Dom Alexandre Cardinal do Nascimento will be buried on 8 October in the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Luanda.
The first and only Cardinal of the Angolan Bishops’ Conference died on 28 September in Luanda, aged 99, from an illness.
The information was given Monday by Canon Apolónio Graciano, for whom the Church of the Sagrada Família will receive the urn containing the cardinal’s remains at 6pm on Sunday 6th, for Eucharistic celebrations and prayers until the 8th.
The parish will also host a prayer vigil in memory of the religious.
The canon also said that all the parishes of the Catholic Church in Luanda will be holding Masses and moments of prayer from today until 5 October.
Masses will be held from 6pm to 8pm.
According to the canon, there will also be a socio-cultural tribute at 4.30pm on Friday at the Catholic University Extension building in Largo das Escolas.
Saturday will be reserved for priests and consecrated women who will be gathered at the Archiepiscopal Seminary in Luanda
.
Alexandre do Nascimento was born in the province of Malanje on 1 March 1925 and studied at the seminaries of ngalas, Malanje and Luanda.
In 1948, he was sent to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a licentiate in theology, and was ordained a priest on 20 December 1952.
As a priest, he became professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Archdiocesan Major Seminary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Luanda, editor-in-chief of the Catholic newspaper ‘O Apostolado’ between 1953 and 1956, and preacher at the Cathedral from 1956 to 1961.
On 10 August 1975, he was appointed Bishop of Malanje and ordained on 31 August 1975 in the Cathedral of Luanda,
On 3 February 1977, he was promoted to Metropolitan Archbishop of Lubango and Apostolic Administrator ad nutum Sanctæ Sedis of the Diocese of Ondjiva.
On 5 January 1983, his creation as a cardinal was announced by Pope John Paul II at the Consistory of 2 February, when he received the red cap and the title of
cardinal-presbyter of San Marcos in Agro Laurentino.
Alexandre do Nascimento was then transferred to the Archdiocese of Luanda on 16 February 1986, where he led the region until 23 January 2001.
He was also president of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé between 1990 and 1997 and joined the Order of Preachers on 5 June 2015.
Throughout his career, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ, presented at the Portuguese Embassy in Luanda on 19 July 2010, and has an Honorary Doctorate from the Catholic University of Angola (2019).
In terms of works, Dom Alexandre Cardinal do Nascimento has ‘After 15 years, a truly Eucharistic hour in the streets of Luanda: an address at the end of the procession of the body of God’, ‘Paths of Hope’, ‘How I read the Book of Ruth’, ‘Intimate diary and other writings of piety’, ‘The Concept of Civilisation and its Incidences’, ‘Man without faith – his possibilities and limits – According to Francisco Suarez’.
As for pastoral writings, highlights include
‘Angolan Constitutional Experience and the Justification of Fundamental Rights’, ‘Book of Rhythms’, ‘Meditations for the Holy Year’, ‘Little Book of Our Lady’ and ‘On Beauty and Morality’.
Source: Angola Press News Agency
