On Sunday (the 19th) in Luanda, Pope Leo XIV called for the building of a country—still marked by its wartime past—where old divisions are overcome once and for all and hatred and violence disappear.
The Holy Father made this appeal during his homily at the Eucharistic celebration, which took place in the heart of Kilamba, in the province of Luanda, on the second day of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Angola, as part of his first apostolic visit to Africa.
To the more than 600,000 people who attended the open-air Mass, Pope Leo XIV drew an analogy between the Gospel story of the disciples of Emmaus and the history of Angola, a “beautiful yet wounded country, which hungers and thirsts for hope, peace, and brotherhood.”
“In truth, along the way, the conversation of the two disciples, who recall with despondency what happened to their master, brings to mind the pain that has marked your country. A long civil war, with its trail of enmities and divisions, of wasted resources and poverty,” stated the Supreme Pontiff.
According to Pope Leo XIV, “when one remains immersed for a long time in a history so marked by pain, one runs the same risk as the two disciples of Emmaus—losing hope and becoming paralyzed by discouragement.”
According to the Pope, “the still-difficult consequences that Angolans are enduring”—namely, social and economic problems and various forms of poverty—require the presence of a Church that knows how to walk alongside them and listen to the cries of its children.
“A Church that, through the light of the Word and the nourishment of the Eucharist, knows how to rekindle lost hope—a Church made up of people like you, who give of themselves just as Jesus broke bread for the two disciples on the road to Emmaus,” he said.
The Supreme Pontiff said that Angola needs bishops, priests, missionaries, religious men and women, and laypeople who carry in their hearts the desire to share their lives, to give themselves to one another, and to act in mutual love and forgiveness.
“To build spaces of fraternity and peace, to perform acts of compassion and solidarity toward those most in need,” he added, emphasizing the need to build a country “where old divisions are overcome forever, where hatred and violence disappear, where the wound of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing.”
“Only in this way will a future of hope be possible, especially for the many young people who have lost it,” said Pope Leo XIV, further urging the need to look to the future with the hope of building a future of hope.
The Holy Father also alluded to issues of syncretism, noting that “it is necessary to always be attentive to forms of traditional religiosity.”
“These certainly belong to the roots of your culture, but at the same time, they run the risk of causing confusion, mixing magical and superstitious elements that do not aid the spiritual journey,” the Pope emphasized. He called on the religious community to remain faithful to what the Church teaches, to trust the shepherds, and to keep “their gaze fixed on Jesus.”
Pope Leo XIV arrived in Luanda early Saturday afternoon and was received at the airport by Angolan President João Lourenço, along with civil and religious authorities, on what is his first apostolic visit to Africa. The trip began on Monday in Algeria, has already taken him through Cameroon and now Angola, and will conclude in Equatorial Guinea.
Source: Lusa
