1 of 2 | Pope Leo XIV waves during a welcome ceremony upon his arrival Saturday at 4 de Fevereiro International Airport in Luanda, Angola. On Wednesday, the pope spoke to officials in Equatorial Guinea, the last stop on his trip. File photo Jose Sena Goulao/EPA
On the final stop of his trip through Africa, Pope Leo XIV addressed officials in Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday, calling on people to work against inequality and exclusion and to safeguard natural resources.
Speaking in Melabo, the nation’s capital, to an audience including government officials and diplomats, the pontiff condemned economies that seek profit at all costs, Euro News reported.
“Such an economy kills,” he said. “In fact, it is even more evident today than in previous years that the outbreak of armed conflicts is often driven by the colonization of oil and mineral resources, without respect for international law or the self-determination of peoples.”
Pope Leo spoke after a welcome by Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has faced many accusations of corruption and authoritarianism in his 47 years in power. More than half of the country’s people live in poverty despite rich offshore oil resources.
The United States under the Trump administration has also sought access to the African region’s mineral resources.
The Vatican News reported that Pope Leo also said that political life should not be driven by “the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion” and noted that “exclusion is the new face of social injustice.” He spoke about the gap between rich and poor, called on leaders to “dismantle the obstacles to integral human development” and warned about the impact on natural resources, saying the developments could obscure “the safeguard of creation, the rights of local communities, the dignity of labor and the protection of public health.”
About 75 percent of Equatorial Guinea’s people are Catholic. Crowds gathered at the airport and along the roads to welcome Pope Leo, who is the first pope to visit the country since Pope John Paul did so in 1982.
“We are very happy now; we have waited 44 years for the arrival of the pope,” Diosdado Marques, a senior Catholic official in Equatorial Guinea, told Euro News. “It is a blessing for the country. We hope that many things will change and our faith will deepen.”
The pope’s trip through Africa included stops in Algeria, Cameroon and Angola.
