Pope hopes to bring a message of joy to long-suffering Angolans on the third leg of his Africa tour

Audio By Carbonatix

LUANDA, Angola (AP) — Pope Leo XIV arrived in Angola on Saturday, hoping to bring a message of joy and encouragement to its long-suffering people, as he opened the third leg of his four-nation trip through Africa.

Leo’s plane touched down at Luanda’s international airport after the flight from Yaounde, Cameroon, where he celebrated a morning Mass before an estimated 200,000 people.

En route, he had further comments about his ongoing back-and-forth with U.S. President Donald Trump over the Iran war, which began on Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes followed by Tehran's retaliation. Leo said that it was “not in my interest at all” to debate the president, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.

In Cameroon, Leo sought to encourage young people to have hope and demanded that elites stop exploiting the land and its people for profit. It’s a message he was expected to echo in Angola, another mineral-rich former European colony where many of the people live in poverty.

In his homily Saturday, delivered in French, Leo said that the respect for human dignity was a cornerstone of every society.

“For this reason, every community has the obligation to create and sustain structures of solidarity and mutual aid in which, when faced with crises — be they social, political, medical or economic — everyone can give and receive assistance according to their own capacity and needs,” he said.

In Angola, Leo will meet with President Joao Lourenco and deliver his first speech before Angolan government authorities.

Angola, a southern African country of around 38 million, gained independence from Portugal in 1975. But it still bears the scars of a devastating civil war that began straight after independence, and raged on and off for 27 years before finally ending in 2002. More than 500,000 people are believed to have been killed.

For years, the civil war was a Cold War proxy conflict, with the United States and apartheid South Africa backing one side and the Soviet Union and Cuba backing the other.

“I would like to hear a message of peace, a message of reconciliation," Luanda resident Sergio Jose said. "I would also like to hear good political messages, and I would also like to hear that the pope would also talk about the upcoming elections in Angola.”

Angola today is the fourth-largest oil producer in Africa and among the world’s top 20 producers, according to the International Energy Agency. It’s also the world’s No. 3 diamond producer and has significant deposits of gold and highly sought after critical minerals.

But despite its varied natural resources, the World Bank estimated in 2023 that more than 30% of the population lived on less than $2.15 a day.

In Cameroon, Leo had railed against the “chains of corruption” that were hindering development, as well as the “handful of tyrants” who were ravaging Earth with war and exploitation. He's expected to raise similar points in Angola.

Late former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who led Angola for 38 years from 1979 to 2017, was accused of diverting billions of dollars of public money to his family, largely from the country’s oil revenue, as millions struggled in poverty.

After Lourenco took over as president, his administration estimated that at least $24 billion was stolen or misappropriated by dos Santos. Lourenco's administration has vowed to crack down on corruption and has worked to recover funds allegedly stolen during the dos Santos era.

But critics note that Angola still has deep problems with corruption and have questioned if Lourenco’s actions were more aimed at political rivals so as to consolidate his power.

Angola, on the southwest coast of Africa, was considered to be the epicenter of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a Portuguese colony. More than 5 million of the roughly 12.5 million enslaved Africans were sent across the ocean on ships departing from Angola, more than any other country, though not all of them were Angolans.

The highlight of Leo’s visit to Angola is expected to be his visit Sunday to Muxima, south of Luanda. It's a popular Catholic shrine in a country where around 58% of the population is Catholic.

The Church of Our Lady of Muxima was built by Portuguese colonizers at the end of the 16th century as part of a fortress complex and became a hub in the slave trade. It remains a reminder of the inextricable link hundreds of years ago between Roman Catholicism and the exploitation of the African continent.

Leo, history's first U.S.-born pope, has Black and white ancestors who included both enslaved people and slave owners, according to genealogical research. He's going to Muxima to pray the Rosary, in recognition of the site becoming a popular pilgrimage destination, after believers reported an appearance by the Virgin Mary around 1833.

___

Gerald Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.