At that solemn shore in Angola, where men were baptized for heaven while consigned to bondage, we learn anew that “those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” Let remembrance beget repentance and duty—truth told, wrongs repaired, and, with malice toward none and charity for all, let the better angels of our nature lead us on.

At this place of sorrow, we must purify memory and confess the grievous sin that obscured the imago Dei in so many of our brothers and sisters. Reconciliation is born of truth and love—caritas in veritate—so that the Gospel, lived as justice and mercy, may heal history’s wounds. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1); may remembrance become conversion and a renewed solidarity.

We bless such a pious visitation: at the font where Africa’s sons were signed with Christ and then cruelly chained, let Christians do penance and repair by justice and charity. For every man, of whatever tongue or color, bears the image of God; to enslave him is to affront the Creator and the moral order. “Caritas Christi urget nos”—let memory become reparation and brotherly concord.