Pope Leo XIV Begins 10-Day Africa Tour – Trending News

Pope Leo XIV on Monday, 13th April, begins an 11-day pastoral visit to four African countries, Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea, marking his first major international tour since becoming head of the Catholic Church last year.

During the trip, the 70-year-old pontiff is expected to address a wide range of issues, including interfaith dialogue with Islam, peacebuilding, inequality, and human rights, while travelling more than 18,000 kilometres across the continent.

Leo, who assumed leadership of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in May, is scheduled to deliver 11 speeches, preside over seven masses, and visit more than a dozen locations before the tour concludes on April 23.

The visit comes at a time of global uncertainty linked to the Middle East conflict and its economic ripple effects, adding greater attention to the pope’s messages and engagements.

The pontiff will begin the tour in Algeria, becoming the first pope to visit the North African nation where Islam is the state religion.

While in the capital, he will tour the Great Mosque of Algiers and hold talks with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

He will also travel to Annaba to meet members of the Augustinian order, the religious community to which he belongs, in the city once home to Saint Augustine.

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco described the visit as symbolic of unity.

“The pope is ‘a brother who comes to visit his brothers’,†Vesco said ahead of the trip.

Leo is also expected to pray privately at a chapel honouring 19 priests and nuns killed during Algeria’s civil war between 1992 and 2002.

Ahead of his arrival, several international organisations urged the pontiff to raise concerns about the treatment of religious minorities in the country.

From Algeria, the pope will travel to Cameroon, where peace and reconciliation are expected to dominate discussions.

The country’s English-speaking northwest region has been ravaged by nearly a decade of conflict, and the Catholic Church has played a mediating role in the crisis.

The highlight of the visit will be a mass and address in Bamenda, the epicentre of the unrest, under tight security.

Leo will also visit hospitals, schools, and charitable institutions run by the Church in Cameroon, where about 37 percent of the country’s 30 million residents are Catholic.

During the visit, he is scheduled to meet President Paul Biya, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, who has faced criticism from some clergy over his prolonged rule.

In Angola, a country rich in oil and minerals but burdened by widespread poverty, Leo is expected to highlight themes of social justice and equitable wealth distribution.

The pontiff will visit the capital, Luanda, where affluent neighbourhoods exist alongside vast informal settlements.

He will also travel to the historic village of Muxima, home to a centuries-old church along a former slave-trading route and regarded as one of southern Africa’s most important pilgrimage sites.

Angola’s Catholic population accounts for roughly 44 percent of the country.

The final leg of the tour will take Leo to Equatorial Guinea, where nearly 80 percent of the population is Catholic but the country has long been ruled by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo since 1979.

“In Equatorial Guinea, attention will be given to culture and education, as well as to the Church’s role in promoting peace in a resource-rich region.

“Members of the papal delegation will include representatives of various Dicasteries, along with several Cardinals from Africa. As is customary, the Pope is expected to hold an in-flight press conference during his flight back to Rome at the end of the journey,†a post on Vatican website site reads.