Rueters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pope Leo urged Angolans on Sunday to overcome divisions after decades of bloody conflict in an address to an estimated 100,000 people who flocked to a Mass in a dirt field near the capital Luanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of the biggest events of his four-nation Africa tour, the pope called Angola, which experienced a bloody, 27-year civil war from 1975 to 2002, a \u201cbeautiful yet wounded country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He urged Angolans to \u201cbuild together a country where old divisions are overcome once and for all, where hatred and violence disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the Mass, the pope decried the recent ramp-up in the Ukraine war, calling \u201cfor the weapons to fall silent and for the path of dialogue to be followed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also praised the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, to end fighting between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah, as a \u201creason for hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Believers began arriving before dawn at Kilamba, a sprawling housing complex, braving hot and humid conditions to hear the address from the pope, who has become outspoken on war and inequality and angered US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time the Mass began, throngs of people filled the site, dancing and shouting as Leo drove through in his white popemobile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among those welcoming Leo was Sister Christina Matende, who arrived around 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) for the Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe pope coming here is a joy,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are living in a moment of a lot of difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angola is one of the leading oil-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, but its population of 36.6 million people is still confronting extreme poverty, with more than 30% living on less than $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than half of the country identifies as Catholic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
POPE DENOUNCES \u2018DESPOTS AND TYRANTS\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Leo, the first US pope, is visiting Angola on the third leg of a four-nation Africa tour. In a speech to the country\u2019s political leaders on Saturday, he decried the exploitation of natural resources on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pope blasted \u201cdespots and tyrants\u201d who he said guarantee wealth but do not deliver on their promises, leading to suffering and deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also urged political leaders to focus on helping all their people, and not just corporate interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHistory will then vindicate you, even if in the near term some may oppose you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anielka Caliata, 25, who was in the crowd waiting for the pope in Kilamba on Sunday, said she was grateful for the way the pope has debuted a forceful speaking style on his Africa tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur country needs a lot of this message and I think the pope will help us to think and reflect about that, knowing that all of us need to work together and do our best to have peace,\u201d she said, as she stood with her fianc\u00e9 and parents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rueters: Pope Leo urged Angolans on Sunday to overcome divisions after decades of bloody conflict in an address to an estimated 100,000 people who flocked to a Mass in a dirt field near the capital Luanda. In one of the biggest events of his four-nation Africa tour, the pope called Angola, which experienced a bloody,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40],"tags":[1045,684,718],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-12229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-faith","8":"tag-angola","9":"tag-catholic-church-2","10":"tag-pope-leo-xiv"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/POPE-AFRICA-ANGOLA.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12231,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12229\/revisions\/12231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12229"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}