US EditionPope Leo heads to Africa on ambitious tour to urge help for continent
The pontiff will make his first major overseas trip of 2026, with 25 speeches planned across four countries, Vatican officials said.
- Pope Leo departs Monday for a 10-day tour of Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea, traveling nearly 18,000 km to urge global leaders to address Africa's needs on his first major 2026 overseas trip.
- Vatican officials describe the tour as a personal priority for Pope Leo, with Cardinal Michael Czerny stating "Africa matters" to the Church, where more than 20% of the world's Catholics now live.
- The itinerary spans 11 cities with 25 speeches, including a "meeting for peace" in Bamenda and a visit to the Great Mosque of Algiers to foster Catholic-Muslim dialogue in Algeria, where Catholics number under 10,000.
- In Bata, Pope Leo will pray at a memorial for victims of the 2021 barracks explosion, bringing hope to regions where political instability and religious intolerance have triggered humanitarian crises and conflicts.
- Local leaders and citizens, including Djamila Cassoma, a 39-year-old Angolan lawyer, view the tour as a deliberate strategy to spotlight African resilience and prompt regional recalibration of responses to religiously tinged conflicts.
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43 Articles
A country-by-country glance at Pope Leo XIV's trip to Africa
Pope Leo XIV’s four-nation, 11-day trip to Africa is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the globetrotting odysseys of St. John Paul II in his early years.Themes Leo is expected to raise include Christian-Muslim coexistence, the over-exploitation of the region's natural and human resources, corruption and migration.Here’s a country-by-country look at each destination and highlights of the itinerary:ALGERIA: April 13-15The Algeria st…
Associated Press News
Pope's Africa trip takes him to a source of growth for the church, and critical challenges
Pope Leo XIV is making a long and ambitious odyssey across four African countries -- Algeria, Angola, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
Catholics hope Pope Leo's Africa trip will uplift countries suffering from U.S. aid cuts
As Pope Leo XIV visits, Africa’s often interrelated crises of armed conflict, poverty and displacement have been worsened by the withdrawal of development and humanitarian aid by the United States and other donor nations.
It will be the longest journey of Leo XIV so far. In eleven days - from 13 to 23 April - the Pope wants to visit four countries: Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. In North Africa he goes on the trail of Saint Augustine.
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