Pope Leo used the final full day of his four-nation African tour to call attention to stark economic disparities and to criticise harsh conditions faced by prisoners, in a programme that took him across Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday.
The pontiff began the day with a roughly 325 km (202 mile) flight from Malabo, on Bioko Island in the Gulf of Guinea, to Mongomo, a town on the countrys eastern border with Gabon near the Congo Basin rainforest. At the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, described as the largest religious structure in Central Africa, he celebrated Mass before an estimated crowd of about 100,000 people gathered inside and outside the complex, the Vatican said.
Addressing those present, the pope urged citizens to prioritise the common good over private interests, saying it is important to reduce the gap between those with privilege and those who are disadvantaged. He also condemned the treatment of people held in detention, pointing to prisoners who are often compelled to live in troubling hygienic and sanitary conditions.
He called on Equatorial Guineans "to serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged."
The crowd packed the Basilica and its surrounding colonnade, which was modelled after St. Peters Square in Rome, according to the Vatican. People danced and cheered as the popes white popemobile arrived, and organisers released plumes of gold, white, green and red smoke into the air, echoing the hues of the Vatican and national flags.
Among those in Mongomo to greet the pope were President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and his son, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. President Obiang has led Equatorial Guinea since 1979 and was present alongside the pontiff at the event. More than 70% of the countrys population of about 1.8 million are reported to identify as Catholic, a point underscored by the size of the turnout.
One attendee, Mairano Nve, 70, described his reaction to the visit: "It is a huge joy to have the pope visiting us. He just wants to see us and give us a blessing in the name of Jesus."
Wednesday marked the first leg of a day of intense travel for the pope, who was due to make two more flights to reach additional cities, including Bata on the western coast. The trip to Mongomo was part of an extensive tour that the Vatican described as one of the most complicated overseas journeys ever arranged for a pontiff. Over the course of the visit, the pope has covered nearly 18,000 km (11,185 miles) across 18 flights to 11 cities in four countries.
The programme also includes a scheduled visit to a high-security detention centre in Bata later on Wednesday. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, say this facility is one of three in Equatorial Guinea where detainees can be held for years without access to lawyers. The Vatican said the pope is expected to hear testimonies from prisoners while at the detention centre and to offer remarks regarding those accounts.
Equatorial Guinea has attracted international criticism for repression, with the government widely described as repressive by critics. President Obiang, who presided over an oil-driven boom beginning in the 1990s that has since declined, denies allegations of human rights abuses and corruption. The government has also dismissed international criticism of its justice system, stating that it operates within an open democratic framework.
The pope's itinerary in Bata will also include a prayer at the site of a 2021 series of explosions at a military barracks that killed more than 100 people, an incident the government attributed to poor ordnance storage. Human rights activists have called for an independent inquiry into the blasts, a request that has not been fulfilled to date.
Over the course of the tour the pope's outspokenness on issues such as war and despotism has drawn criticism from some quarters, including the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to material included in the trip coverage. The visit to Equatorial Guinea is the first papal journey to the country since 1982.
The events of the day underscored both the strong public interest in the pontiffs message and the sensitive political and human rights questions he is addressing as he completes the last full day of the four-nation tour.