Pope Leo XIV heads to historical shrine, center of African slave trade

Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Angola, an oil- and mineral-rich country in south-west Africa, marked the third leg of his tour of four African nations.

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On Saturday, after meeting with Angolan President João Lourenço, the Pope delivered his first address to Angola’s governing authorities, repeatedly referring to the country’s turbulent history, scarred by colonial plunder and civil war.

“I wish to meet you in a spirit of peace and to affirm that your people possess treasures that can neither be bought nor stolen,” the Holy Father warned.

“You know well that, all too often, people have looked – and continue to look – to your lands in order to give, or, more frequently, to take,” Pope Leo XIV told the Angolan authorities.

Angola is currently Africa’s fourth-largest oil producer and ranks among the world’s 20 biggest producers, according to the International Energy Agency. The country is also the third-largest diamond producer in the world and has significant deposits of gold and highly sought-after critical minerals.

Yet despite its abundant natural resources, the World Bank estimated in 2023 that more than 30% of the population was living on less than €1,83 a day.

“This cycle of vested interests must be broken, which reduces reality and even life itself to mere commodities,” the Holy Father told Angola’s leaders.

After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola plunged into a brutal civil war that lasted 27 years.

After João Lourenço took office in 2017, his administration estimated that at least €20 billion had been stolen or embezzled by former Presdient José Eduardo dos Santos. Lourenço’s government pledged to tackle corruption and has been working to recover funds allegedly looted during the dos Santos family era.

But critics say Angola still faces serious corruption problems and question whether João Lourenço’s actions have been aimed more at sidelining political rivals in order to consolidate his power.

Standing alongside Pope Leo XIV, Angola’s president said his government was committed to improving people’s lives but that this was a “complex and difficult challenge”. João Lourenço also called for an end to the war in Iran and urged the Pope to continue using his “moral authority” to promote peace and understanding among peoples.

Muxima visit: highlight of Pope Leo XIV Angola trip

In Kilamba, at Sunday morning Mass, Pope Leo XIV appealed for peace in Ukraine and across the Middle East. Speaking in Portuguese, the Holy Father called for an end to corruption in Angola by healing the “wound of corruption”.

“We can and want to build a country where the old divisions are overcome for good, where hatred and violence disappear, where the wound of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing,” he said, according to the Ecclesia news agency.

After Mass in Kilamba, on the outskirts of Luanda, the Pope traveled to Muxima, in what is considered the highlight of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Angola. The Holy Father prayed the rosary at the Mamã Muxima (Mother of the Heart) church, a popular Catholic shrine in a country where around 44% of the population is Catholic.

Angola was widely regarded as the epicentre of the transatlantic slave trade. Angola was regarded as the epicentre of the trade in enslaved people. It is estimated that more than 5 million enslaved Africans were shipped across the ocean on Portuguese vessels.

Described as “the largest Catholic pilgrimage centre in Southern Africa and a symbol of popular devotion in Angola.”, Muxima remains a place that speaks to the complex relationship between Roman Catholicism and the exploitation of the African continent.

Born in the United States, Robert Francis Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) has both Black and white ancestry, including forebears who were both enslaved people and slave owners, according to genealogical research.

The pontiff is going to Muxima on Sunday afternoon to pray the rosary, in recognition of the fact that the site became a popular pilgrimage destination after worshippers reported an apparition of the Virgin Mary there around 1833.

Additional sources • AP, Vatican News, Ecclesia