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,

Since his election last May, Pope Leo XIV has hammered home the theme of unity. But nowhere has that message taken on sharper contours than in Angola, where the long shadow of civil war and stark inequality continues to fracture the nation.

In Luanda, Catholics expressed love and admiration for Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, but not so much for President Trump because of the war in Iran.

His visit includes a trip to a shrine where enslaved Africans were baptized before being forced into the treacherous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, as the American pope prayed at a Catholic shrine located at the site of an

When Pope Leo XIV arrives in oil-rich Angola on Saturday, he will likely bring a message of both condemnation and encouragement to a nation where the faith is rapidly growing, amid widespread inequality and a legacy of war.

Pope Leo sharply decried the exploitation of natural ​resources in Africa on Saturday, blasting "despots and tyrants" who guarantee wealth but do not deliver on their promises, leading to ‌suffering and deaths.