Kukiland Express Desk with inputs from AFP
Published: Monday, April 20, 2026
Pope Leo XIV used his Sunday Mass and Regina Coeli address in Luanda’s Kilamba district to issue one of his strongest appeals yet for an end to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, telling thousands of faithful that only “the path of dialogue” can replace the sound of weapons with lasting peace. The pontiff spoke on April 19, the second day of his visit to Angola, the third stop on his four-nation apostolic journey across Africa, framing his message around the Third Sunday of Easter and the Gospel of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Addressing the vast congregation gathered at the Kilamba esplanade, the Pope said he “deeply regret the recent intensification of attacks against Ukraine, which continue to affect the civilian population,” and assured all who are suffering of his closeness and prayers. His words came as Ukraine reels from the deadliest Russian assaults in months, with more than 700 drones launched in multiple waves over the past week that killed at least 18 people in Odesa, Dnipro and Kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities.[s]
The Holy Father noted that the escalation followed a brief ceasefire observed during the Orthodox Easter last weekend, but that both Moscow and Kyiv quickly accused each other of hundreds of violations, underscoring the fragility of any pause in fighting. Against that backdrop, Pope Leo XIV declared: “I renew my appeal for the weapons to fall silent, and for the path of dialogue to be pursued,” urging political and military leaders to choose negotiation over further bombardment of civilian areas.
Turning his attention to the Middle East, the Pope described the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that came into effect on Thursday as “a sign of hope, offering relief to the Lebanese people and to the wider Levant.” The truce, announced earlier the same day by the U.S. President, seeks to halt a confrontation that has killed almost 2,000 people in Lebanon, injured thousands more, and displaced tens of thousands since Israeli strikes against Hezbollah intensified last year.
“I encourage those engaged in seeking a diplomatic solution to continue along the path of peace,” Pope Leo said, “so that the end of hostilities throughout the Middle East may become lasting.” He stressed that temporary pauses must become permanent, and that the international community has a responsibility to support mediation efforts that address root causes rather than merely freezing conflict lines.
As he concluded Holy Mass, the Pope invited the faithful of Angola to join him in prayer, but emphasized that worship cannot ignore the world’s suffering. “With this joyful hymn, we do not wish to silence or drown out the cry of those who suffer,” he said. “Rather, we seek to embrace it and join it to our own voices in a new harmony, so that even in pain the light of faith may remain alive, and with it the hope for a better world.”
Pope Leo reminded the congregation that Easter proclaims Christ’s victory over death, a victory that must shape Christian life today. “United with him and in him as one body,” he said, “we must strive today and every day to foster around us the fruits of Easter: love, true justice, and peace, beyond every obstacle and difficulty.” He then invoked the intercession of Mary: “May the Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Heart, help us always to feel alive and strong within us, the presence of her risen Son close at hand.”
Earlier in his homily, Pope Leo XIV reflected at length on the Gospel of Luke recounting the disciples on the road to Emmaus, calling it a mirror for Angola’s own national journey. “Remain faithful to what the Church teaches, trust your Pastors, and keep your gaze fixed on Jesus, who reveals Himself in a particular way in the Word and in the Eucharist,” he told the crowd, speaking during his first full day in the country.
He expressed gratitude for being able to celebrate the Eucharist in their midst, thanking God for the gift of the visit and for the Angolan people’s joyful welcome. The Emmaus story, he explained, shows two disciples leaving Jerusalem wounded and sorrowful after witnessing the death of Jesus, the one in whom they had placed all their trust. They were despondent until they recognized that the Risen Christ was walking beside them, listening to their grief and breaking open the Scriptures.
“In this opening scene of the Gospel, I see reflected the history of Angola,” Pope Leo said, “this beautiful yet wounded country, which hungers and thirsts for hope, for peace, and for fraternity.” He drew a direct parallel between the disciples’ discouraged conversation and Angola’s experience of a long civil war that left enmity and division, squandered resources, and deep poverty in its wake.
The Holy Father acknowledged that prolonged suffering can paralyze a people, just as it did the disciples. “When one has long been immersed in a history so marked by suffering, one risks becoming like the disciples of Emmaus, losing hope and remaining paralyzed by discouragement,” he said. “One is weary, not knowing how to begin again or whether it is even possible.”
Yet the Gospel, he continued, shows that the Lord does not abandon the discouraged. “He draws near to the two discouraged disciples and by becoming their companion on the journey, helps them piece together that story, to look beyond their pain, to discover that they are not alone on the path, and that a future — still inhabited by the God of love — awaits them.”
“Dear friends, the Good News of the Lord, also for us today, is precisely this,” Pope Leo underscored. “He is alive, He is risen, and He walks beside us as we journey along the road of suffering and bitterness. He opens our eyes to recognize His work and grants us the grace to set out again and to rebuild the future.” That, he said, is the path set before Angola: the certainty of Christ’s companionship, and the commitment He asks in return.
The Pope explained that Christians encounter the Risen Lord most powerfully in prayer, in the Word that makes hearts burn within, and above all in the Eucharist. For that reason, he cautioned the faithful to remain vigilant against forms of traditional religiosity that, while part of Angola’s cultural roots, “risk confusing and mixing in magical and superstitious elements that do not help us on the spiritual journey.”
“Remain faithful to what the Church teaches, trust your Pastors, and keep your gaze fixed on Jesus,” he repeated. “In both Word and Eucharist, we experience that the Risen Lord walks beside us, and united with Him, we too overcome the deaths that besiege us and live as those who have been raised.” That assurance, he said, must move believers to action: to heal wounds and rekindle hope.
Pope Leo said Angola’s history, its enduring hardships, its social and economic challenges, and its many forms of poverty “all call for the presence of a Church that walks alongside her people and is able to hear the cry of her children.” The Church, nourished by Word and Eucharist, can revive lost hope and must form people willing to give themselves as Jesus broke bread for the disciples at Emmaus.
“Angola needs Bishops, priests, missionaries, men and women religious, and lay faithful who have in their hearts the desire to break their own lives and give them to one another,” he said. By the grace of the Risen Christ, he added, “we too can become this broken bread that transforms reality.”
He envisioned a country where Eucharistic unity becomes social reality: “Just as the Eucharist reminds us that we are one body and one spirit, united in the one Lord, so we too can — and we wish to — build a country where old divisions are definitively overcome, where hatred and violence disappear, and where the wound of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing.”
“Only in this way,” Pope Leo insisted, “will a future of hope be possible, especially for the many young people who have lost it.” He closed his homily by urging Angolans to look to the future with courage and to build that future themselves. “Do not be afraid to do so! The Risen Jesus, who walks the road with you and breaks Himself as bread for you, encourages you to be witnesses of His Resurrection and protagonists of a new humanity and a new society.”
The Pope reassured the nation’s Catholics of his closeness and prayers, entrusting them to the Blessed Mother, and said he knows he can count on their prayers too as his African journey continues.
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