Luanda - Canon Apolónio Graciano said that Catholics are pained, sad and hurt by the death of Dom Alexandre Cardeal do Nascimento that occurred at 4 pm on Saturday in Luanda, at the age of 99, victim of illness.
“We are Christians, yes, men of hope, men of faith, but we know how difficult this moment, this hour is,” he stressed.
According to Canon Apolónio Graciano, the cardinal stayed a few days in the intensive care unit of the Girassol Clinic, where he eventually died.
“Well, at this moment, we have practically lost words, we do not have appropriate words to, in fact, portray the dimension of the human man, the dimension of the Christian man, the dimension of the man who really knew how to mark the life of the church and also of his country,” he said.
He added that Alexandre do Nascimento loved Angola and the church, giving as an example the testimonies of many disadvantaged people who considered him as a father.
The father of the poor has departed, the man who knew how to forgive, to love his fellow men, who had his own words for the most difficult moments of his people, the most delicate of the Church itself, he underlined.
Alexandre do Nascimento was born in the province of Malanje, on March 1, 1925, and studied at the seminaries of Bângalas, 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, and editor-in-chief of the Catholic newspaper 'O Apostolado', between 1953 and 1956, and served as Preacher of the Cathedral, from 1956 to 1961.
On August 10, 1975, he was appointed bishop of Malanje, being ordained on August 31, 1975, in the Cathedral of Luanda,
On February 3, 1977, he was promoted to Metropolitan Archbishop of Lubango and apostolic administrator ad nutum Sanctæ Sedis of the Diocese of Ondjiva.
On January 5, 1983, his creation as a cardinal was announced by Pope John Paul II, in the Consistory of February 2, in which he received the red hat and the title of cardinal-priest of San Marco in Agro Laurentino.
Subsequently, Alexandre do Nascimento was transferred to the Archdiocese of Luanda on February 16, 1986, having led this region until January 23, 2001.
He was also president of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé, between 1990 and 1997, and on June 5, 2015 he joined the Order of Preachers.
Throughout his career he was recognized with the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ, delivered at the Portuguese Embassy in Luanda, on July 19, 2010, and has an Honorary Doctorate from the Catholic University of Angola (2019).
