Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday called for not using the name of God “for the will of domination, arrogance, and discrimination” during a speech delivered in Equatorial Guinea, full of allusions to the global political situation. These words were spoken before Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang, who has been in office since 1979 and harshly represses all attempts at democratic opposition, and in the midst of a confrontation with US President Donald Trump over the war in the Middle East. In this regard, he asked that God not be invoked “to justify decisions and actions that cause death.”
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Leo XIV delivered this speech in Spanish at the presidential palace in Malabo before numerous authorities and after meeting with Obiang, 83, who in 1982 also received Pope John Paul II as president of the country. In that year, the latter already called for “respect and promotion of the rights of each person or group, and better living conditions to realize themselves as men and as children of God,” something Leo XIV has done again. “These are words that remain current and challenge anyone who holds public office,” the Pope said before a president who wins election after election with percentages close to 99%.
“May this country not hesitate to review its own development trajectories and the positive opportunities to position itself on the international stage in the service of law and justice,” the Pope added about Equatorial Guinea, the fourth and last country on Leo XIV’s African tour, which began on April 13 in Algeria and concludes this Thursday after also having visited Cameroon and Angola.
“A world wounded by arrogance”
In Malabo, Robert Prevost also assured that “in a world wounded by arrogance, peoples hunger and thirst for justice” and that it was necessary to value “those who believe in peace, and dare to apply counter-current policies, focused on the common good” and referred to the large number of wars in the world for control of resources. “One of the main reasons for the proliferation of armed conflicts is the colonization of oil and mining fields, without taking into account international law or the right of peoples to self-determination,” he added.
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During the three days he will remain in Equatorial Guinea, the Pope is scheduled to deliver up to seven speeches and homilies. In addition, he will inaugurate a university campus in Basupu, which will bear his name, visit a psychiatric care center, and meet with bishops and priests. In the continental region of the country, he will officiate a mass in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mongomo, inaugurate a technology center, and, already in Bata, visit the prison and the cathedral. On his last day in Malabo, the political center of the country, he will offer a multitudinous mass in a stadium expected to be attended by some 20,000 people.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema came to power in 1979 through a coup d’état in which he overthrew his uncle, Francisco Macías. Since then, he has governed this oil-rich country with an iron fist. The country’s vice president and most likely successor is his son Teodoro Nguema Obiang, known as Teodorín, convicted in France for money laundering and embezzlement. Another of the dictator’s sons, Carmelo Ovono, as well as part of the government’s security leadership, will be prosecuted in Spain for kidnapping and torture of opponents.
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