Pope Leo on cinematic last day in Africa
Pope Leo’s four-country tour of Africa came to a dramatic end; The pope braved a heavy rainstorm to greet crowds in Equatorial Guinea after giving a speech at a prison where inmates clamored for freedom.
Widely derided as one of the most repressive countries in the region, Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea has been ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the world’s longest-serving president.
It has warm ties with the United States, partly due to its oil riches.
Leo, the first U.S. pope to adopt a powerful new style of speech while in Africa, began the day by denouncing wealth inequality during Mass at Central Africa’s largest religious structure, a church in the town of Mongomo, located on the edge of the Congo Basin rainforest.
Amnesty International said he later visited a prison in the city of Bata, where detainees had been regularly held for years without access to lawyers.
Leo listened to various testimonies from prisoners gathered in a courtyard inside the facility. While he was making these statements, it started to rain, but the detainees continued to stand outside.
The Pope called for “every effort” to be made to give detainees the opportunity to study and work during their detention.
As he left and Justice Minister Reginaldo Biyogo Mba Ndong Anguesomo remained on stage, prisoners began jumping up and down in the rain and chanting “Freedom, freedom!” They started shouting.
Equatorial Guinea has long denied accusations of human rights abuses. Before Leo spoke at the prison in Bata, Biyogo said the country treated prisoners fairly, in line with United Nations standards.
“We are determined to guarantee human rights, fundamental rights and citizenship,” he said.
Obiang’s government struck a deal with the Trump administration last year to accept deportees from other countries; This is one of a series of regulations that have sparked criticism from immigration lawyers and advocates in Africa.
Activists hoped Leo would draw attention to deportees being sent from the United States to Equatorial Guinea.
A group of 70 NGOs published an open letter on Monday, urging Leo to press for “fair, humane and lawful treatment” of the deportees, saying they were being pressured to return to their home countries.
Leo, who drew the ire of US President Donald Trump after becoming more outspoken against war and despotism, did not publicly address the plight of deportees in Equatorial Guinea or Cameroon, the first stop on his tour and another country that received them.
At mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mongomo on Wednesday morning, Leo called on Equatorial Guineans to “serve the common good rather than private interests by closing the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.”
The Vatican said about 100,000 people gathered inside and outside the basilica to see Leo on Wednesday, gathering around the colonnade modeled on St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
They danced and screamed when the white ‘popemobile’ arrived. Organizers sent gold, white, green and red smoke into the air, saluting the colors of the Vatican and Equatorial Guinea flags.
More than 70 percent of Equatorial Guinea’s population of 1.8 million identifies as Catholic. Leo, the first pope to visit since 1982, comes to the end of one of the most complex foreign tours ever undertaken for a pontiff. It traveled approximately 18,000 km with 18 flights to 11 cities in four countries.
