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Malabo (Fides News Agency) – “As in the early centuries of the Church, Africa today is called to make a decisive contribution to the holiness and the missionary character of the Christian people.” These final words of Pope Leo XIV, addressed to the crowd gathered in Malabo stadium and, ideally, to the entire continent, at the end of his first long journey as Bishop of Rome to Africa, evoke the past of apostolic times in order to look to the future. He has just concluded Mass, the final act of his visit to Equatorial Guinea. Before returning to Rome, Pope Prevost confessed that he is leaving Africa “with an immeasurable treasure of faith, hope and charity: a great treasure consisting of stories, faces and testimonies, both joyful and sorrowful, which will greatly enrich my life and ministry as the Successor of Peter.” And he entrusts to the intercession of the Virgin Mary “you all, your families, your communities, your nation and all the people of Africa.”
At the beginning of his homily, Pope Leo recalled the painful fact of the sudden death of Fortunato Nsue Esono, Vicar General of the diocese of Malabo, who had made a significant contribution to the preparations for the papal visit and was found dead on April 17 at his residence in the parish of Our Lady of Bisila. The cause of his death has not yet been made public. “I invite you to live this moment of sadness with a spirit of faith,” the Pope said, “and I trust that, without being swayed by speculation or rash conclusions, the circumstances surrounding his death will be fully clarified.”
In his last homily delivered in Equatorial Guinea, drawing on the readings of the day's liturgy, Leo XIV offered valuable guidance on how to approach the reading of Sacred Scripture. "All the texts of Scripture reveal their true meaning in faith, because they were written and handed down to us through faith. Reading them, therefore, is always both a personal and an ecclesial act; it is never something done in isolation or in a merely mechanical way. Together we read Scripture as the shared heritage of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, who inspired its composition, and by Apostolic Tradition, which has preserved and transmitted it throughout the world.”
In the final part of his homily, Leo XIV recalled that the living source of the Church's mission is the experience of the Lord's gratuitous love: "He always loves us first. His word is the Good News for us, and we have nothing greater to proclaim to the world. All of us are called to this evangelization from the moment of our Baptism, the sacrament of fraternal unity, the cleansing water of forgiveness and the source of hope. Through our witness, the proclamation of salvation is made visible in action, service and forgiveness — in a word, it becomes the Church.”
The Pope recalled the opening of Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” He encouraged everyone, “as the living Church in Equatorial Guinea, to carry on the mission of Jesus’ first disciples with joy. As you read the Gospel together,” he concluded, “proclaim it with passion, just as the deacon Philip did. And as you celebrate the Eucharist together, bear witness through your lives to the faith that saves, so that God’s word may become good leaven for all.” (Fides News Agency, 23/4/2026)
