Leo is the third pope to visit a fossil fuel-rich country, following John Paul II in 1992 and Benedict XVI in 2009.
Published April 18, 2026
Pope Leo
Leo, the third pope to visit the fossil fuel-rich country, following John Paul II in 1992 and Benedict XVI in 2009, is scheduled to arrive in the capital Luanda at 3pm local time (1400 GMT) on Saturday, where a billboard bearing his likeness has been erected to welcome him.
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The pope, who visited Cameroon for three days before flying to Luanda, is also scheduled to meet and give a speech to President João Lourenco of Angola, where about 44 percent of the population identifies as Catholic.
Leo’s increasingly forceful calls for world peace are likely to resonate in Angola, which was born in 2002 out of a 27-year civil war that erupted after independence from Portugal in 1975.
The first American pope has used his visits to Africa to issue sharp warnings about corruption, the exploitation of the continent’s vast resources and the dangers of artificial intelligence.
“Stick to moral issues”
The Pope’s trip to Africa was also marked by a clash with President Trump, who criticized the 70-year-old head of the Catholic Church as “soft on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy.” President Trump also released an image that appeared to be AI-generated of himself as Jesus, prompting backlash from religious leaders from all walks of life.
In response, the pope said he was not afraid of President Trump and would continue to speak out against the war, making this a rare public clash between a pope and a sitting US president.
President Trump told reporters Thursday that the pope has the right to disagree. “I don’t dispute the fact that the pope can say what he wants to say, and I want him to say what he wants to say, but there are times when I don’t agree with him,” he said.
Leo on Thursday said the world was “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” and doubled down on those who use religion to justify war, after U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance urged the Vatican to “stick to moral issues.”
While in Cameroon, Leo also urged the country’s leaders to fight corruption and condemned “those who continue to occupy, exploit and plunder the African continent in the name of profit.”
Leo’s warnings against corruption and exploitation may also resonate in Angola, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line despite vast fossil fuel reserves.
On Sunday, they will celebrate an open-air mass in Quiramba, on the outskirts of Luanda, before flying by helicopter to Mshima, home to a 16th-century church and a major pilgrimage site.
On Monday, Leo will travel to Saurimo to visit a nursing home and celebrate Mass again. They will then fly to Equatorial Guinea, the final destination on an 18,000-kilometre (11,185-mile) African tour.
