Pope in Saurimo warns God is not a ‘guru’ as locals battle wizardry

SAURIMO – Pope Leo XIV on Monday visited the town of Saurimo in northeastern Angola, where he cautioned locals against traditional superstitious practices and condemned the various forms of violence, inequality and oppression that plague the nation.

Speaking during Mass at the Saurimo Esplanade April 20, the pope recalled the miracles Jesus performed in scripture, noting that many people set out in search of him after they heard of the miracles he performed.

“At the same time, the Lord looks into our heart and asks us whether we seek him out of gratitude or for our own self-interest, with calculation or with love,” he said, noting that Jesus in the Gospel chastises those who followed him after the multiplication of the loaves and fish not out of a desire for genuine encounter, but “to consume.”

The people see Jesus as a mere “means to an end, a provider of services,” the pope said, saying that if Jesus had not given them something to eat, “his actions and teachings would not have interested them.”

“This happens when genuine faith is replaced with superstitious practices, in which God becomes an idol that is sought only when it is advantageous to us and only for as long as it is,” he said.

Under this mentality, even God’s most beautiful gifts, he said, “become a pretext, a prize or a bargaining chip, and are misinterpreted by those who receive them.”

“The Gospel account, then, helps us to understand that there are erroneous motives for seeking Christ, particularly when he is considered to be a guru or a good luck charm,” Leo said, cautioning against those who want a leader only “for their own advantage.”

Pope Leo, who has repeated this caution against local practices of superstition and sorcery throughout his 4-nation Africa tour, celebrated Mass after visiting a nursing home in Saurimo, whose local economy depends primarily on agriculture, farming, and diamonds.

At the Lar de Assistência a pessoa idosa nursing home, where many speak the local dialect of Chokwe, rather than Portuguese, the pope heard two testimonies from residents, who performed a song and dance for the pontiff before he offered a brief greeting and left for Mass.

One of the residents who greeted the pope, Antonio Joaquím, 72, called his visit “a blessing from God,” as not all people, especially not the elderly, have “the grace of meeting the pope’s enfoy.”

“The Holy Father’s visit is a source of great joy for us and increases our hope for life,” he said, saying the pope’s visit would “strengthen our faith.”

In remarks to the press, Joaquím explained that he came to the center when his son fell ill and died. Originally, his family had encouraged him to visit a fortune teller or sorceress of sorts to seek healing through magic and divinity.

Joaquím refused to go, and when his son later died, the sorceress accused him of being a dark wizard who brought a bad spirit upon his son, and blamed him for his son’s death, so Joaquím’s family abandoned him.

When he asked the government for help, he was sent to the Lar de Assistência a pessoa idosa.

In many African nations, especially in rural areas that maintain superstitious beliefs in witchdoctors and sorcery, Joaquím’s story is not unique, making the pope’s appeal in Mass not to see God as a “guru” or “good luck charm” relevant.

However, in his homily, the pope noted that in the Gospel, when people come to Jesus for misguided reasons, Jesus does not turn them away, bur rather, gently chides them and invites conversion.

“He does not dismiss the crowd but invites everyone to examine what stirs in our hearts,” he said, saying, “Christ calls us to freedom: he does not want servants or clients, rather he seeks brothers and sisters to whom he can totally dedicate himself.”

Archbishop José Manuel Imbamba of Saurimo in a greeting to the pope called his visit “historic” and called Leo a “messenger of hope, peace, reconciliation, and fraternity” who can help the country go in a different direction.

“Your presence among us is like the sun rising over our rivers, illuminating the paths and warming our hearts; it is a balm for our wounds; it is the confirmation of our faith and the renewal of the hope that does not disappoint,” he said.

Imbamba prayed that the visit May this visit would be “an impulse for us to continue announcing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with prophetic courage, serving the poor with evangelical tenderness, and contributing to the building of an Angola that is more just, peaceful, inclusive, and reconciled.”

During his Mass in Saurimo, the pope, in addition to cautioning against local superstitious practices, said it is not enough to just come to Jesus to see what he says and does. Rather, he must be followed and imitated.

Jesus’s chastisement of the crowd for their misguided motives, then, becomes an invitation to something deeper, he said, saying Jesus “teaches us the correct way to search for the bread of life, food which sustains us forever.”

This is ultimately an invitation to conversion, the pope said, saying it also applies to the modern circumstances of Angola.

To this end, he again hit back against exploitation and corruption of Africa’s resources, which he condemned in a speech to national authorities after his arrival in Angola Saturday.

“We can see today how the hope of many people is frustrated by violence, exploited by the powerful and defrauded by the rich. Consequently, when injustice corrupts hearts, the bread of all becomes the possession of a few,” he said, repeating his frequent condemnation of an unjust and inequal distribution of wealth.

Faced with challenges such as poverty, corruption, inequality and exploitation, he said, the commemoration of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead at Easter offers hope for a way forward.

“In him the proclamation of our resurrection finds its voice. We did not come into the world to die,” he said.

“We were not born to become slaves either to the corruption of the flesh or that of the soul: every form of oppression, violence, exploitation and dishonesty negates the resurrection of Christ, the supreme gift of our freedom,” Pope Leo said.

The choice to resist these temptations requires daily effort, he said, saying, “Let us proceed in this wise direction!”

“With the Gospel in your heart, you will have courage in the face of difficulties and disappointments: the way that God has opened for us, never fails,” he said, saying God will guide them and strengthen them on the journey.

This, he said, lending support to Pope Francis’s push for synodality in his Synod on Synodality process, is “a journey that we want to learn to live more and more as it should be, that is in a synodal manner.”

Leo also stressed the need for charitable service to the needy in a society marred by extreme poverty, saying, Christians “are called to serve our people with a dedication that lifts up all who have fallen, rebuilds whenever violence destroys and shares with joy our fraternal bonds.”

He urged Angolans to move forward on “a path of hope, reconciliation and peace, along which the gift of God becomes the responsibility of the head of the household, in the Christian community, in civil society.”

The pope closed his homily referencing the vitality of the church in Africa, including its many vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and underlined the need to work together to build a better future.

“Traveling together, in the light of the Gospel, the Church in Angola grows according to the spiritual fruitfulness that begins from the Eucharist and continues in the integral care of each person and of the entire people,” he said.

The high number of vocations coming from Africa, he said, “is a sign that you are responding to the Lord’s gift, which is always abundant for those who welcome it with pure hearts.”

Leo closed his Mass urging local Catholics to “remain faithful to your Christian roots! In this way, you will be able to continue contributing ever more effectively to the building up of justice and peace in Africa and throughout the world.”

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