The bishop of Angra, D. Armando Esteves Domingues, defended on Thursday, September 5, 2026, a governance based on co-responsibility and service, during the Thanksgiving Eucharist for the 50 years of Azores Autonomy, at the Matriz Church in Horta. The prelate rejected isolation and called for solidarity among the islands of the archipelago, warning that autonomy is not built in the isolation of one person or one island against another, but in the interdependence of the boats.
The celebration was attended by the president of the Assembly of the Republic and the holders of the governing bodies of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. D. Armando Esteves Domingues used the Gospel account of the miraculous catch of fish to illustrate social commitment, emphasizing that this "putting out to sea" requires that the Azoreans continue to "dream together the future" and that when one island catches fish, the other must come help pull the net to ensure that the entire archipelago triumphs.
The bishop of Angra warned of the dangers of territorial individualism and argued that the future of the region depends on the eradication of poverty and exclusion, requiring that society ensure "fish, meat, house and bread enough for everyone." In the homily, he evoked the figure of St. Gregory the Great to demand politically oriented leadership for justice, arguing that public decisions must have "the smell of the people" and assume the priority of the vulnerable.
The religious celebration is part of the commemorations of the 50 years of the Political-Administrative Autonomy of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. D. Armando Esteves Domingues also recalled the historical role of the parochial network in the cohesion of the archipelago, noting that the Catholic Church was the only institution to look at the Azores as a "whole" before the centralized political power of 1766.
