Pope Leo Urges Angola to Heal Divisions at Crowded Events

Pope Leo Urges Angolans to Overcome Divisions

On Sunday, Pope Leo urged Angolans to overcome divisions following decades of war. The event took place outside Luanda, drawing roughly 130,000 people.

The first US-born pope celebrated Mass in Kilamba, a sprawling housing development, before traveling by helicopter to the Catholic shrine in Muxima.

During the Mass, he called Angola—a “beautiful yet wounded country”—to build together a nation where old divisions are overcome once and for all, hatred and violence disappear.

At the shrine, about 130 km southeast of the capital on the edge of the Kwanza River, throngs of people danced and sang as the pope was driven through the crowd in a white golf cart.

The site, now a popular religious destination, was built over a 16th-century Portuguese fortress that played a central role in the transatlantic slave trade, which historians estimate captured some six million people from what is now Angola to send to the Americas.

Leo did not refer to the site’s history but called on Angolans to build a peaceful, more just world. “It is love that must triumph, not war!” he said.

At the end of the Mass in Kilamba, the pope decried a recent ramp-up in the Ukraine war and praised the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as a reason for hope.

Believers began arriving before dawn at Kilamba to hear Leo speak. Sister Christina Matende, who arrived around 6:00am, said the pope’s visit was a joy amid difficulties facing Angola, where more than 30% of the population lives on less than $2.15 per day.

Leo is visiting Angola as part of a four-nation Africa tour. In a speech to political leaders on Saturday, he criticized “despots and tyrants” who guarantee wealth but do not deliver on their promises, leading to suffering and deaths. He urged leaders to focus on helping all people rather than corporate interests.