Pope Leo XIV continues African tour in Angola, addresses Trump comments
via SeneNews4 min read
Pope Leo XIV began the third leg of his African tour in Angola, a Portuguese-speaking nation where one-third of the population lives below the poverty line despite decades of oil exploitation. En route to Angola, the Pope expressed regret that his recent speeches in Africa were interpreted as a response to criticisms from US President Donald Trump, stating that "debating him again" was "not in his interest." He cited a speech written two weeks prior to Trump's criticisms and delivered in Cameroon, where he denounced a world "being ravaged by a handful of tyrants." The Pope noted this speech was perceived as an attempt to re-engage in debate with the President, which he denied was his intention. Earlier, the Pope concluded his three-day visit to Cameroon with an open-air mass at Yaoundé airport, attended by 200,000 faithful according to Vatican figures, with hundreds of thousands more in the surrounding areas. In his homily, delivered in French, he thanked Cameroonians and urged the crowd to have "the courage to change habits and structures" in a country led by Paul Biya, 93, since 1982. He then landed in Luanda, Angola, where he was greeted with fanfare and cannon salutes reserved for heads of state. He is scheduled to deliver his first address to authorities this afternoon. Leo XIV is the third pontiff to visit Angola, following John Paul II in 1992 and Benedict XVI in 2009. Elected in May 2025, the head of the Catholic Church, previously more reserved than his predecessor P
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This summary was AI-generated from a story originally published by SeneNews.
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