This morning at 01:30 in a clinic in Beira, Jaime Pedro Gonçalves Archbishop Emeritus of Beira, died after a long illness. May he rest in peace.
Morreu esta noite às 01:30 na clínica Avicenna, Jaime Pedro Gonçalves, Arcebispo Emérito da Beira. Paz a Sua Alma.
Picture of the right: Opening of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima Murraça
By Hugh Seenan, M.Afr
Jaime Pedro Gonçalves died today 6th Abril at 79 years of age in hospital in Beira after a long illness. Born 26th November 1936 in Nova Sofala in Beira Province, he studied in Zobue in the Junior Seminary directed by the Missionaries of Africa. He then went to the Major Seminary in Lourenço Marques e Namaacha and made further studies in Canada (Antigonish) and Rome.
He completed forty years as Bishop last week, Easter Monday, but was too sick to participate in the special mass. He was the major player in bringing the two sides to the negotiating table in Rome in the first Civil War which led to the signing of the Peace Accords of the 4th October 1992. He was very involved in the preparations of the first Extraordinary Synod for Africa, as a Vice-President of SECAM for the Portuguese language.
With the Missionaries of Africa at the handing over of Murraça.
Extract from Review Essay – Conflict in Southern Africa
“Mozambique’s peace agreement constitutes a rarity in conflict resolution, namely, as one of the few cases where the initiative, the pace, and the resolve of negotiations were determined not by diplomats but by the offices of the men and women of good will from Sant’Egidio, a Catholic lay order in Rome’s Trastever district and by the clairvoyance and determination of a formerly imprisoned Mozambican Catholic Bishop, Jamie Pedro Goncalves, Archbishop of Beira. Ending Mozambique’s War is a detailed account of the negotiations that led to peace and eventually to democratic elections in Mozambique in 1993.” READ MORE ON THIS PDF FILE
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