From 12th June until 17th June 2023, the Catholics Bishops of Botswana, Eswatini and South Africa together with the Secretariate will visit Rome for the ” Ad Limina visit. Bishop Jose Ponce de Leon is the Coordinator of the SACBC Ad Limina Visit.
Ad Limina is from the Latin Ad Limima apostolorum (to the threshold of the apostles), it happens every five years or quinquennially but due COVID-19 pandemic the last visit the bishops had been in 2014.
The ad limina visit is an obligatory visit of Catholic residential diocesan bishops and certain prelates with territorial jurisdiction (such as territorial abbots) to the thresholds of the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and to meet the pope and other official from the Roman Curia to report on the state of their dioceses or prelatures. The spiritual heart of the Ad Limina visit is to have Masses at Major Rome churches such as St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major.
