{"id":32725,"date":"2026-04-22T14:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=32725"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:00:48","slug":"pope-decries-inequality-on-whirlwind-last-day-of-africa-tour","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/pope-decries-inequality-on-whirlwind-last-day-of-africa-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope decries inequality on whirlwind last day of Africa tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Pope Leo used the last full day of his four-nation Africa tour on Wednesday to speak out against wealth \u200binequality, urging believers to work to bridge the gap between rich and poor as he traversed oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The pope, \u200cwho has attracted the ire of United States (US) President Donald Trump after becoming more outspoken against war and despotism, was also due to visit a high-security prison that human rights groups say holds political prisoners in abusive conditions.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Pope, the first US Pope, started the day by flying about 325 kilometres from Malabo, located on Bioko Island in \u200bthe Gulf of Guinea, to Mongomo, on the eastern border with Gabon on the edge of the Congo Basin rainforest.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">At a \u200bMass in the largest religious structure in Central Africa, the pontiff urged Equatorial Guineans &#8220;to serve the common good rather than private \u2060interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The Pope, who has debuted a forceful new speaking style during the Africa tour, also \u200bdecried poor treatment of &#8220;prisoners who are often forced to live in troubling hygienic and sanitary conditions&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21855,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-32725","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Pope Leo speak out against wealth \u200binequality","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32726,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32725\/revisions\/32726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}