“A gesture of gratitude to the Vatican”: Angola’s President on Honorary Medal for Pope Paul VI

Luanda, 08 November, 2025 / 11:37 AM

Angola’s President João Lourenço has described the posthumous decoration of Pope Paul VI with the Medal of the 50th Anniversary of Angola’s Independence as a historic gesture of gratitude to the Vatican for the late pontiff’s support of African liberation movements in the early 1970s.

During a ceremony held on Thursday, November 6, in Luanda, President Lourenço presented the medal and honorary diploma to the Apostolic Nuncio in Angola and São Tomé, Archbishop Krispin Witold Dubiel. 

The decoration is part of a series of distinctions awarded to national and foreign figures who contributed to Angola’s liberation struggle, the consolidation of peace, and national development.

In his address, President Lourenço underscored the symbolic significance of Pope Paul VI’s actions during the final years of European colonial rule in Africa. 

“It is a gesture of gratitude to the Vatican, for the act of Pope Paul VI in receiving in audience the leaders of the liberation movements of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau,” President Lourenço said.

He noted that the meeting sent “a clear message to the most conservative circles of the Church and to the world that colonialism had to fall.”

The 1970 audience at the Vatican with Agostinho Neto, Amílcar Cabral, and Marcelino dos Santos is widely regarded by historians as a diplomatic turning point that gave international visibility to the African struggle for independence. 

The Portuguese government at the time considered the meeting an affront and recalled its ambassador to the Holy See.

President Lourenço said the legacy of Paul VI continues to inspire Angola’s ongoing pursuit of peace, reconciliation, and social justice. 

“His message remains alive and continues to inspire the free and reconciled Angola we are building today,” the President said.

He used the occasion to acknowledge the contributions of countries and individuals who helped Angola resist decades of conflict and rebuild after the civil war. 

“This is a gesture of recognition and gratitude to those peoples and nations for their invaluable support,” President Lourenço said.

Members of the Bishops' Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe (CEAST), both living and posthumously, were also decorated during the November 6 event.