Pope Leo XIV urges Angola to overcome divisions in address to 100,000

The pontiff called Angola a 'beautiful yet wounded country' during Mass near Luanda on his four-nation African tour.

Pope Leo XIV addressed an estimated 100,000 people at an open-air Mass near Luanda on Sunday, urging Angolans to overcome divisions created by the country's 27-year civil war, which ended in 2002²³⁴. The pontiff called Angola a "beautiful yet wounded country" and urged citizens to "build together a country where old divisions are overcome once and for all, where hatred and violence disappear"²³⁴.

The Mass, held in Kilamba, a sprawling housing development outside the capital, drew throngs of worshippers who began arriving before dawn in hot and humid conditions²³⁸. Vice President Esperança da Costa and First Lady Ana Dias Lourenço attended the ceremony⁷. Believers danced and shouted as Leo drove through the crowd in his white popemobile²³.

At the conclusion of the Mass, Leo decried the recent escalation of the Ukraine war, calling "for the weapons to fall silent and for the path of dialogue to be followed"²³⁴. He also praised the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as a "reason for hope"²³.

Following the Mass, Leo travelled by helicopter to the Catholic shrine in Muxima, about 130 kilometres southeast of Luanda, where roughly 30,000 additional people gathered⁴. The shrine, built as part of a 16th-century Portuguese fortress, was once at the heart of the transatlantic slave trade that historians estimate captured some six million people from what is now Angola⁴. Leo did not refer to the site's history in his remarks but called on Angolans to build a peaceful, more just world⁴.

On Saturday, upon arriving in Angola from Cameroon, Leo had addressed political leaders including President João Lourenço, condemning the exploitation of natural resources on the continent¹⁸⁹. "How much suffering, how many deaths, how many social and environmental disasters are brought about by this logic of extractivism," Leo said⁹. He called on Angolans to work for a society free from the "slavery imposed by the elite who are laden with much wealth but false joys"⁹.

Angola, one of sub-Saharan Africa's leading oil producers, has a population of 36.6 million, more than 30 percent of whom live on less than $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank⁸. More than half the country identifies as Catholic⁸.

The visit to Angola marked the third leg of Leo's four-nation African tour, which began in Algeria and Cameroon and will conclude in Equatorial Guinea¹⁰. Leo, the first US-born pope, has drawn criticism from US President Donald Trump during the tour¹⁸⁹. On the flight from Cameroon to Angola, Leo told reporters that it was "not in my interest at all" to debate Trump but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace, justice and brotherhood in Africa¹.