Antonio Joaquim was 67-years-old when his family cast him out of his home for refusing to seek a "kimbanda," a traditional healer-diviner figure prevalent in Angolan society, to treat his son who had fallen ill.
After his son died, Joaquim was saddled with blame and accused of possessing an evil spirit that led to his son's death. His family and his community told him to "go to the kimbanda, the diviners," he told reporters ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the nursing home where has lived for the last five years in northeastern Angola. But, "us as Christians, we cannot accept what they do; it's a big problem."
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