Pope at Mass in Kilamba: Jesus walks beside the Church in Angola

"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."

Pope Leo XIV insisted on this point during his Mass in Kilamba, Angola, on Sunday 19 April 2026, during his first full day in the country and in the midst of his four-nation journey to Africa.

On this Third Sunday of Easter, the Pope recalled the day's Gospel according to St. Luke, which recounted the passage of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Two of the Lord’s disciples, with their hearts wounded and sorrowful, leave Jerusalem to return to their village of Emmaus, after having seen the death of that Jesus in whom they had placed their trust and whom they had followed. Initially they are despondent, but then all this changes when they recognize that Christ is in their midst, that the Lord Jesus is walking beside them.