Pope Leo XIV celebrated Holy Mass this Wednesday, April 22, in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception of Mongomo, in Equatorial Guinea, where he recalled the 170 years of evangelization in the country and called on the faithful to personally assume the mission received. In his homily, the Pontiff emphasized that faith, lived intensely in its liturgies, must translate into concrete commitment to one’s neighbor and the promotion of the common good, while also warning of the need to overcome inequalities and build a future marked by hope.
We now leave below the complete homily, delivered in Spanish by Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters:
In this splendid cathedral basilica, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Patroness of Equatorial Guinea, we have gathered to listen to the Word of the Lord and celebrate the memorial that He has left us as the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church. The Eucharist truly contains all the spiritual good of the Church: it is Christ, our Passover, who gives Himself to us; it is the living Bread that satisfies us; it is the presence that reveals to us God’s infinite love for the entire human family, which continues today to go out to meet every man and woman.
I am pleased to be able to celebrate with you, giving thanks to the Lord for the 170 years of evangelization in these lands of Equatorial Guinea. This is an opportune occasion to recall all the good that the Lord has accomplished and, at the same time, I wish to express my gratitude to the numerous missionaries, religious sisters, diocesan priests, catechists, and lay faithful who have given their lives in service to the Gospel.
They have welcomed the expectations, questions, and wounds of their people, illuminating them with the Word of the Lord and becoming a sign of God’s love in your midst; with their witness of life, they have collaborated in the coming of the Kingdom of God, without fear of suffering for their fidelity to Christ.
It is a history that you cannot forget, which, on one hand, unites you to the apostolic and universal Church that precedes you and, on the other, has accompanied you so that you yourselves become protagonists of the proclamation of the Gospel and the witness of faith, fulfilling those prophetic words spoken on African soil by the Pope Saint Paul VI: “You Africans, you are already missionaries to yourselves. The Church of Christ is truly rooted in this blessed land” (Homily at the Conclusion of the Symposium of African Bishops, Kampala, Uganda, July 31, 1969).
From this perspective, you are called to continue today the path traced by the missionaries, pastors, and laity who preceded you. Each and every one is asked for a personal commitment that encompasses life in its entirety, so that faith, celebrated in such a festive manner in your communities and liturgies, may nourish your charitable activities and responsibility toward your neighbor, for the promotion of the good of all.
This commitment requires perseverance, costs effort, sometimes sacrifice, but it is the sign that we are truly the Church of Christ. The first reading we have heard narrates in a few verses how a Church that proclaims the Gospel with joy and without fear is also a Church that, precisely for that reason, can be persecuted (cf. Acts 8:1-8). But, on the other hand, the same book of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that, while the Christians are forced to flee and disperse, many come to the Word of the Lord and can see with their own eyes that the sick in body and spirit are healed. These are the prodigious signs of God’s presence, which generate great joy in the entire city (cf. vv. 6-8).
Thus, brothers and sisters, although the personal, family, and social situations we live are not always favorable, we can trust in the work of the Lord, who makes the good seed of His Kingdom spring forth through paths we do not know, even when everything around us seems sterile, and even in moments of darkness. With this confidence, rooted more in the strength of His love than in our merits, we are called to remain faithful to the Gospel, to proclaim it, to live it fully, and to bear witness to it with joy. God will not deprive us of the signs of His presence and, once again, as Jesus told us in the Gospel we have just heard, He will be for us “the bread of life” that will satisfy our hunger (cf. Jn 6:35).
What is the hunger we feel? Of what is this country hungry today? The motto of my visit is “Christ, Light of Equatorial Guinea, towards a future of hope”, and perhaps this is precisely the greatest hunger today: there is hunger for the future, but for a future inhabited by hope, which can generate a new justice, which can bear fruits of peace and fraternity. And it is not a matter of an unknown future that we must wait for passively, but of a tomorrow that precisely we, with God’s grace, are called to build. The future of Guinea passes through the decisions you make; it is entrusted to your sense of responsibility and to the shared commitment to safeguard the life and dignity of every person.
It is therefore necessary that all the baptized feel involved in the work of evangelization, become apostles of charity and witnesses of a new humanity.
It is a matter of participating, with the light and strength of the Gospel, in the integral development of this land, in its renewal, in its transformation. There are many natural riches that the Creator has given you; I exhort you to cooperate so that they may be a blessing for all. May the Lord help you to become more and more a society in which each one, according to their respective responsibilities, works at the service of the common good and not of particular interests, overcoming inequalities between the privileged and the disadvantaged. May spaces of freedom grow and may the dignity of the human person always be safeguarded; I think of the poorest, of families in difficulty; I think of prisoners, often forced to live in worrying conditions of hygiene and health.
Brothers and sisters, Christians are needed who take in their hands the destiny of Equatorial Guinea. For this reason, I want to encourage you: do not be afraid to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel! Be you the builders of a future of hope, of peace and reconciliation, continuing the work that the missionaries began 170 years ago.
May the Immaculate Virgin Mary accompany you on this path. May she intercede for you and make you generous and joyful disciples of Christ.