Luanda - The Standing Council of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and Sao Tome and Principe (CEAST), denied Tuesday, here, allegations that priest Raul Tati had been detained for reasons related to the church or that it had been the church hierarchy that expelled him, Angop has learnt.

The communiqué, issued at the end of the first ordinary session of this year, says that the request for abandonment was done by himself, first through a letter addressed to the cardinal of the Congregation for People Evangelisation, on March 10, 2008, and on November 08, 2009, addressed to the Bishop of Cabinda".

   On the document, CEAST quotes words by the Priest, in the mentioned letters, saying that: "I would seize (...) the desire of encouraging Our Excellence to advance with the procedures of the canon customs, according to my intention already expressed previously".