By Yesim Dikmen and Joshua McElwee
KILAMBA, Angola, April 19 (Reuters) – Pope Leo urged Angolans on Sunday to overcome divisions after decades of war, first at a Mass in a field outside Luanda and then in a prayer at a site that was once a hub for transatlantic slavery, events that jointly drew roughly 130,000 people.
The first U.S.-born pope, who has become outspoken on war and inequality and angered President Donald Trump, celebrated Mass outside in Kilamba, a sprawling housing development, before travelling by helicopter to the Catholic shrine in Muxima.
During the Mass, he called Angola, which experienced a 27-year civil conflict from 1975 to 2002, a “beautiful yet wounded country”.
He urged Angolans to “build together a country where old divisions are overcome once and for all, where hatred and violence disappear.”
At the shrine, about 130 km (81 miles) southeast of the capital on the edge of the Kwanza River, throngs of people danced and sang in hot, humid weather as the pope was driven through the crowd in a white golf cart.
The shrine, now a popular religious site, was built as part of a 16th-century Portuguese fortress at the heart of the trade that historians estimate captured some six million people from what is now Angola to enslave and send to the Americas.
Leo did not refer to the site’s history in his remarks but called on Angolans to build a peaceful, more just world.
“It is love that must triumph, not war!” he said.
POPE DECRIES INTENSIFICATION OF UKRAINE WAR
At the end of the Mass in Kilamba, the pope decried a recent ramp-up in the Ukraine war, calling “for the weapons to fall silent and for the path of dialogue to be followed”.
He also praised the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, to end fighting between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah, as a “reason for hope”.
Believers began arriving before dawn at Kilamba to hear Leo speak.
Among those welcoming him was Sister Christina Matende, who arrived around 6:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) for the Mass.
“The pope coming here is a joy,” she said. “We are living in a moment of a lot of difficulties.”
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.
More than half of the country identifies as Catholic.
POPE DENOUNCES ‘DESPOTS AND TYRANTS’
Leo is visiting Angola on the third leg of a four-nation Africa tour. In a speech to the country’s political leaders on Saturday, he decried the exploitation of natural resources on the continent.
The pope criticised “despots and tyrants” who he said guarantee wealth but do not deliver on their promises, leading to suffering and deaths.
He also urged political leaders to focus on helping all their people, not just corporate interests.
“History will then vindicate you, even if in the near term some may oppose you,” he said.
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.
“Our 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,” she said, as she stood with her fiancé and parents.
(Additional reporting by Joshua McElwee in LuandaEditing by Robbie Corey-Boulet, Jane Merriman, Peter Graff)
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