Catitablet: app for reading the Bible in local languages

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Catitablet is an initiative launched by the Catholic Church of Angola during the Covid-19 pandemic to enable people to read the fundamental texts of the Church not only in paper format but also on mobile devices. On 4 August, the Local Church presented to the public its latest project, entitled The Catechism via Tablet–a version of the Bible and the Missal translated into the Tchokwe, Luchazes, Lunda-Ndembo and Luvale languages, which are spoken in the eastern part of Angola. The faithful are responding positively to the new app–a valuable tool for evangelizers and catechists working in these remote parts of the country, where more than 7,000 people of different ethnic groups live. “With this new app,” explains Bishop Jesús Tirso Blanco of the Lwena diocese, “we now have a specific instrument to preach the Gospel to different tribes and indigenous peoples. Obviously, evangelizers can spread the Word of God in a more complete way when they have mastered the local languages in the regions in which they live and work.” This latest initiative to translate sacred texts is not the first to be undertaken by the Church in Angola. In fact, in 2019 it translated the Catechism of the Catholic Church into Umbundu, the second most-spoken language in the country after Portuguese.