On the third leg of his Africa tour, Leo urges Angola to move beyond \u201cdivisions\u201d created by its war-scarred past.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 19 Apr 2026<\/span>19 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pope Leo XIV has addressed tens of thousands of faithful near Angola\u2019s capital, urging the country to overcome \u201cdivisions\u201d and \u201ccorruption\u201d during a landmark tour of Africa.<\/p>\n Speaking at an open-air Mass on Sunday in the town of Kilamba on the outskirts of Luanda, Leo addressed the country\u2019s civil war-scarred past that he said has brought \u201cenmity and division, squandered resources and poverty\u201d.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cToday, there is a need to look to the future with hope and to build that hope. Do not be afraid to do so,\u201d Leo said.<\/p>\n The pontiff arrived in the Portuguese-speaking nation on Saturday for the third leg of a four-nation tour of the continent, which began in Algeria and Cameroon\u00a0and will also include a stop in Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n At a meeting with Angolan officials, including President Joao Lourenco, Leo spoke out against the \u201csuffering\u201d and social and environmental \u201cdisasters\u201d caused by the rampant exploitation of natural resources.<\/p>\n The remarks in Angola, which endured a decades-long civil war that ended in 2002, continued a theme of Leo\u2019s 11-day tour, during which he has delivered pointed warnings against corruption and the plunder of the continent\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n The first United States-born pope has also delivered remarks seen as critical of the US-Israeli war in Iran and US policy, including calling US President Donald Trump\u2019s threat to end Iran\u2019s civilisation \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n The pontiff\u2019s rhetoric has put him at odds with Trump, who last week called the Catholic leader \u201cweak\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d.<\/p>\n Leo said he is not afraid of the Trump administration and will continue to speak out against war. But travelling from Cameroon to Angola on Saturday, Leo also said he has no interest in starting \u201ca new debate\u201d with the US president.<\/p>\n Many people who attended the Mass at Kilamba arrived early in the morning in anticipation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pope coming here is a joy,\u201d said \u200cSister Christina Matende, who arrived about 6am (05:00 GMT). \u201cWe are living in a moment of a lot of difficulties, and we are waiting for the blessing of the pope.\u201d<\/p>\n From Kilamba, Leo is to travel 110km (70 miles) by helicopter to the town of Muxima, Angola\u2019s most venerated pilgrimage site, where a 300-year-old church overlooks a river that was once a major slave-trading route.<\/p>\n The church, with a statue of the Virgin Mary known affectionately as \u201cMama Muxima\u201d, draws roughly two million pilgrims a year and large crowds are expected to meet the pope there.<\/p>\n The pope is then due to travel more than 800km (497 miles) from the capital to visit a retirement home in Saurimo, where he will celebrate another Mass before departing for Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n Catholic lawyer Domingos das Neves said the pope\u2019s focus on social justice was welcome in Angola, which is struggling with \u201cstark social asymmetries and inequalities\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAngola is in great need of a guiding light to illuminate our collective efforts both within ecclesiastical institutions and the state, so that we do not forget the poor and the destitute,\u201d das Neves told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On the third leg of his Africa tour, Leo urges Angola to move beyond \u201cdivisions\u201d created by its war-scarred past. Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026 Pope Leo XIV has addressed tens of thousands of faithful near Angola\u2019s capital, urging the country to overcome \u201cdivisions\u201d and \u201ccorruption\u201d during a landmark tour of Africa. Speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Waiting for pope\u2019s blessing\u2019<\/h2>\n
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