1 of 5 | Pope Leo XIV delivers on the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica the Urbi et Orbi message on Christmas Day in Vatican City. The pope will visit Africa in April. File Photo by Stefano Spaziani/UPI | License Photo
Pope Leo XIV will make a 10-day trip through Africa visiting four countries in a trip seen as significant to Catholics in the continent.
The itinerary includes Algeria in north Africa, then Angola, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, in western Africa from April 13 to 23.
According to the Vatican’s most recent statistics published in October, the number of Catholics increased by more than 15 million worldwide from mid-2022 to mid-2023, with more than half of them in Africa. And although African cardinals are underrepresented in senior leadership, Africa produces more trainee priests than any other continent, The New York Times reported. About one-fifth of Africa’s population are Catholic.
Pope Paul VI visited Uganda in 1969, then John Paul II traveled to Africa 13 times. Benedict XVI visited the continent twice, and Francis traveled there four times.
Leo has visited Africa many times before he was pope because he was the leader of the Order of St. Augustine. The order follows the teachings of Augustine of Hippo, who was born in what’s now Algeria in the year 354.
On a recent trip to Lebanon and Turkey, Leo said he would like to visit Africa, and especially Algeria, to visit St. Augustine sites, but also to “continue the conversation of dialogue, of building bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world,” The Times reported.
The Vatican said Leo would visit Algiers and Annaba in Algeria. Annaba stands on the site formerly known as Hippo.
As the first Augustinian pope, he will likely emphasize missionary outreach and the importance of listening before making decisions, which are both key to Augustinians, The Times reported.
“The Holy Father will certainly be inspired by this search for communion and dialogue,” Pierantonio Piatti, a historian of Augustinians with the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences at the Vatican told The Times.
“The other great element of Augustinian spirituality,” Piatti said, is a “search for balance between action and contemplation, between contemplation and action.”
He will then visit Cameroon, stopping in Yaoundé, Bamenda and Douala.
“Pope Leo will go to the Anglophone region in the north of Cameroon, where for 10 years a civil war has been underway involving the regular armed forces and the separatists,” the Vatican said.
Then he’ll travel south to Angola, where he will visit Luanda, Muxima and Saurimo.
And finally, Equatorial Guinea, where he will visit Malabo, Mongomo and Bata. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking African country.
The Vatican said the trip will be “focused on peace,” and the pontiff will pay “particular attention to the least, the poor and those who care for them” in developing countries.
On March 28, the pope will take a day trip to Monaco for his first trip of 2026. It will be the first papal trip to the principality in the modern era, the Vatican said.
“The Principality is a European reality where Catholicism is the state religion and where dialogue between civil institutions and the Church remains a matter of concrete importance in the public debate,” the Vatican said. “Also significant is the Principality’s commitment to peace.”
June 6-12, Leo will visit Spain, stopping in Madrid and Barcelona, where he will inaugurate the new, central tower of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s monumental basilica that will be complete after 144 years. The visit also falls on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death. He was declared a Venerable Servant of God last year, the Vatican said.
Leo will also visit the Canary Islands, stopping in Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
Historic February moments through the years
Former South African president Nelson Mandela speaks to reporters outside of the White House in Washington on October 21, 1999. Mandela was famously released from prison in South Africa on February 11, 1990. Photo by Joel Rennich/UPI | License Photo
