1 of 2 | Pope Leo XIV receives flowers during a visit at the Presidential Palace in Algiers, Algeria, Monday. The pope is on an 11-day papal trip to Africa, with scheduled stops in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. Photo by Vatican Media/EPA
Pope Leo XIV began his papal trip to Africa Monday, landing in Algeria, the ancient home of St. Augustine of Hippo, bringing peaceful messages to the country and its people.
The trip includes stops in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, and will last 11 days, but Algeria is the only Muslim-dominant country on the trip.
When he arrived Monday at Algiers International Airport Houari Boumediene, he was welcomed by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. He was later taken to the Maqam Echahid, a monument commemorating those who died in the Algerian War. The war was fought from 1954 to 1962 against the French to establish Algeria as an independent state.
The trip to Africa is significant to the continent and the Catholic church. There are 14 new Catholic dioceses created in Africa in the past year, and the Catholic population has grown by 7 million, said John Pontifex of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need UK.
“A focus on Africa this early on in Pope Leo’s pontificate no doubt reflects a sense that in terms of Catholicism this is a continent that is coming of age,” The Guardian reported he said.
The pope spoke to around 1,400 civil authorities at the Djamaa el Djazair Conference Center. He said he comes as a “pilgrim of peace” and said “we are brothers and sisters, for we have the same Father in heaven.”
“By respecting the dignity of everyone and allowing yourselves to be moved by the pain of others, instead of multiplying misunderstandings and conflicts, you can surely become protagonists of a new chapter in history,” he said.
“I therefore urge those of you who hold positions of authority in this country not to fear this outlook but to promote a vibrant, dynamic and free civil society, in which young people in particular are recognized as capable of helping to broaden the horizon of hope for all,” he said.
The Rev. Peter Claver Kogh, rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers, told The Guardian that the visit is a moment to strengthen bonds between Christian and Muslim communities, and solidify “the desire to have a climate of peace and tolerance among these two religions.”
“That is what the world needs now — a world of fraternal living and living in harmony,” Kogh said. “That will be the utmost importance of this visit for Christians and Muslims who are here, and all those who desire to live in peace and harmony.”
Leo chose to make his longest trip so far to Africa and chose not to visit the United States.
“That’s the unspoken part of this,” Dr. Miles Pattenden, a historian of the Catholic church at the University of Oxford, told The Guardian.
By canceling his trip and spending Independence Day at Lampedusa, Italy, where many refugees land, he’s making a statement, Pattenden said.
“He’s sending an extremely powerful message, which President [Donald] Trump obviously understands, and that may explain some of his bombastic criticisms of the pope over the past few days,” Pattenden said.
Leo then visited the Grand Mosque of Algiers, in which he noted the site’s spiritual significance and paused in silent meditation.
Rector of the Mosque Mohamed Mamoun al Qasim welcomed the pope and offered words of brotherhood.
“I thank you for these reflections and for these important words during this visit, from a place that represents the space that belongs to God, a divine and sacred space, where many people come to pray and to seek the presence of the Most High in their lives,” Leo responded.
He signed the mosque’s Book of Honor: “May the mercy of the Most High keep the noble Algerian people and the entire human family in peace and freedom.”
On Tuesday, the pope visited Annaba, the site of the ancient city of Hippo, where Augustine served as bishop.
He then spent a few minutes with elderly people at the Ma Maison Care Home for the Elderly, run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.
He told residents in a brief address that “God dwells here,” noting that “wherever there is love and service, God is there.”
A Muslim resident of the home, Salah Bouchemel, greeted the pope and said he enjoyed the respect for one another’s religions at the home.
“God’s heart is torn apart by wars, violence, injustice and lies,” he said. “But our Father’s heart is not with the wicked, the arrogant or the proud.”
North Africa is home to some of the earliest Christian communities before Islam arrived and is still critical to the church’s intellectual and theological heritage.
“Starting his visit in Algeria shows the other side of African Christianity that Leo is also deeply attuned to: its ancient legacy,” said Professor Anna Rowlands, St. Hilda chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice at Durham University.
She added that Leo, the former head of the Augustinian order, then Friar Robert Prevost, traveled to African communities often.
“The church in Africa is well known to him — probably better known than to any pope in the modern era.”
Kogh said hearing Leo address the people of Algeria brought him “A feeling of joy.”
“I’m so glad to have heard that message, because it was what I was expecting: a message of peace, and a call to coexistence and living in fraternity. So my joy redoubles.”
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