Pope Leo XIV urges Angola to overcome divisions during Mass for 100,000

First US-born pontiff decries resource exploitation and calls for peace during third stop of four-nation Africa tour.

Pope Leo XIV addressed an estimated 100,000 worshippers at an open-air Mass in Kilamba, near Luanda, on Sunday, urging Angolans to overcome divisions stemming from the country's 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.²³ 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."²³

Believers began arriving before dawn at the sprawling housing complex, braving hot and humid conditions to hear the address.²³ By the time the Mass began, throngs filled the site, dancing and shouting as Leo drove through in his white popemobile.²³ The Vatican had estimated some 200,000 people might attend the event, one of the largest of the pope's four-nation Africa tour.⁹

At the conclusion of the Mass, Leo decried the recent escalation in 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

On Saturday, the first US-born pope had delivered a sharply worded speech to Angola's political leaders, condemning the exploitation of natural resources in Africa by "despots and tyrants" who guarantee wealth but fail to deliver on promises.¹⁰ "How much suffering, how many deaths, how many social and environmental disasters are brought about by this logic of extractivism," Leo said in remarks delivered to President João Lourenço and other officials.¹⁰

The pontiff lamented that "powerful interests lay their claim" on Angola's natural resources, an apparent reference to foreign companies benefiting from the country's oil and diamond sectors.¹⁰ Angola is one of the leading oil-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, yet more than 30 percent of its 36.6 million people live on less than $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank.⁹

Leo's visit to Angola marks the third leg of his four-nation Africa tour, which began in Algeria and Cameroon and will conclude in Equatorial Guinea.¹¹ The tour has been marked by the 70-year-old pontiff's increasingly forceful speaking style on issues of war and inequality, which has drawn criticism from US President Donald Trump.⁸⁹ En route from Cameroon, Leo told reporters that it was "not in my interest at all" to debate Trump, but that he would continue preaching messages of peace, justice and brotherhood.¹

On Monday, during an event in Saurimo near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, Leo continued his pointed commentary, telling worshippers that many people in the world were being "exploited by authoritarians and defrauded by the rich."⁸ "Every form of oppression, violence, exploitation and dishonesty negates the resurrection of Christ," he said.⁸

Vice President Esperança da Costa and First Lady Ana Dias Lourenço attended the Sunday Mass in Kilamba.⁷ Following the Mass, Leo travelled by helicopter to the Catholic shrine in Muxima, approximately 130 kilometres southeast of Luanda, where an additional 30,000 people gathered.⁴ The shrine, built as part of a 16th-century Portuguese fortress, was once central to the transatlantic slave trade that historians estimate captured some six million people from what is now Angola.⁴