Overview
- Pope Leo XIV, who departed Tuesday for Equatorial Guinea, said on the papal plane that the Church and Angola’s government are already working together on health and education, including talks with President João Lourenço about new hospitals and facilities.
- At a Sunday Mass in Kilamba near Luanda that drew about 100,000 people, he urged Angolans to overcome divisions and fight the scourge of corruption by building a culture of justice and sharing in a country rich in oil and diamonds but marked by deep poverty.
- He prayed at the Mama Muxima shrine, a 16th‑century site tied to the transatlantic slave trade where enslaved Africans were baptized before forced marches to Luanda, a visit that underscored historical reckoning for the Church and offered a moment of healing for many faithful.
- In Saurimo on Monday, in Angola’s diamond‑rich northeast, he told worshippers that oppression, violence, exploitation and dishonesty contradict the Christian message, reinforcing his broader denunciations of resource plunder by despots and the powerful.
- Crowds lined the routes and packed events, with roughly 130,000 attending Sunday’s Mass and prayer, while his sharper language on war and “tyrants” kept global attention on the tour, including a public exchange with President Donald Trump.