The pope will even go to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea throughout his 11-day journey to the continent.
Printed On 13 Apr 2026
Pope Leo XIV has begun an formidable 11-day tour of 4 international locations in Africa, urging world leaders to deal with the wants of the continent the place greater than a fifth of the world’s Catholics stay.
The primary American pope heads to Algeria for 2 days on Monday earlier than persevering with to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea in a whirlwind tour of 11 cities and cities, traversing almost 18,000km (11,185 miles) over 18 flights.
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The pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US and Israel’s conflict on Iran, has made just one main abroad journey since being elected final Could, visiting Turkiye and Lebanon in November and December. He visited Monaco in March.
Leo, aged 70, comparatively younger and in good well being for a pope, is endeavor probably the most difficult excursions organized for a pontiff in a long time.
Greater than 20 % of the world’s Catholics stay in Africa, in keeping with Vatican statistics. The three sub-Saharan nations the pope is visiting have populations the place greater than half establish as Catholic.
Algeria, nonetheless, is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation with fewer than 10,000 Catholics amongst its inhabitants of some 48 million individuals. That is the primary time it would host a Catholic pope.
The journey is aimed toward persevering with to “construct bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds”, the archbishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco, advised the AFP information company.
Pope to ship 25 speeches in 11 days
Leo’s tour is the twenty fourth by a pope to Africa for the reason that late Sixties.
He’s anticipated to the touch on many subjects in 25 deliberate speeches over 11 days, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni advised journalists on Friday, on condition that the 4 nations face numerous points.
Doubtless subjects embrace exploitation of pure assets, Catholic-Muslim dialogue, and risks of political corruption, mentioned Bruni.
Monday’s itinerary features a go to to the Nice Mosque of Algiers – with the world’s highest minaret – and the Basilica of Our Girl of Africa, overlooking the Bay of Algiers.
Leo plans to wish privately within the chapel devoted to 19 clergymen and nuns murdered throughout Algeria’s 1992-2002 civil conflict. He is not going to, nonetheless, go to the Tibhirine monastery, whose monks had been kidnapped and murdered in 1996, an occasion nonetheless shrouded in thriller.
The Vatican mentioned, throughout his journey, the pope will even discuss corruption in usually authoritarian regimes and the function of political leaders. Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea have presidents who’ve been in energy for many years and have been accused of human rights abuses, which they deny.
The most important occasion of the itinerary will seemingly are available in Cameroon on Friday, when the Vatican mentioned some 600,000 are anticipated for a mass within the coastal metropolis of Douala.
Africa as a complete contributed greater than half of the 15.8 million new Catholics who had been baptised in 2023, or 8.3 million new African Catholics, in keeping with the most recent Vatican statistics. The continent additionally contributes hundreds of males to the priesthood and girls to non secular orders every year, turning a continent that was lengthy on the receiving finish of Western missionaries into one which exports its clergymen and nuns overseas.
In response to Vatican statistics, Angola and Cameroon persistently produce a few of the largest numbers of seminarians on the continent every year.
Comfy in a number of languages, Leo is anticipated to deal with audiences in Italian, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish in the course of the journey.