Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd as he leaves the Cardinal Paul Emile rehabilitation center in Cameroon on Thursday. The pontiff is in Africa for a seven-day trip that will also take him to Angola.associated press

LUANDA, Angola — Pope Benedict XVI headed today to the southern African country of Angola, where most of the people — including more than 8.5 million Catholics — live in poverty despite the country's multibillion-dollar oil revenues.

Benedict began the second leg of his African pilgrimage after a meeting this morning in Cameroon with about 15 pygmies who presented him with a turtle. In his departure speech, he referred to the work of a center for the sick and disabled that he had visited, and said its "Christ-like compassion is a sure sign of hope for the future of the church and the future of Africa."

Angola is where Portuguese missionaries baptized the continent's first Catholic convert in 1491. More than 60 percent of the population is Catholic, despite a Marxist revolution and a 1975-2002 civil war in which many missionaries were slain. Portuguese missionaries baptized the continent's first Catholic convert there in 1491.

Angola's longtime president, Eduardo dos Santos, was married in 1992 in a televised Catholic ceremony.

"Christianity is not only a religion but a composite part of the Angolan identity, said Nelson Pestana, a political scientist who lectures at the Catholic University of Angola.

Dos Santos' party swept elections last year that critics say were marred by fraud and corruption. The victory has silenced many dissenting voices, including those of the church, Pestana said, adding that the pope should be careful that his visit this week does not appear to legitimize dos Santos' 30-year rule.

"The pope, who has great authority to speak, would influence the powers that be in Angola by drawing greater attention to the poor," he said. "But the regime wants a sort of papal benediction, so that its authoritarianism will not be seen as an absolute dictatorship but a symbolic enthronement as a divinely inspired power."

Angola is rich in diamonds and oil, but war and mismanagement have left most Angolans in poverty. Pestana says some of the country's bishops have spoken out in courageous pastoral letters condemning the use of multibillion-dollar oil revenues for personal enrichment while citizens remain poor.

He says the bishops are divided between those who would see the church reinforcing its status by cementing a strong alliance with the government and those who warn that this would be corrupting.