By Joshua McElwee
Vatican City — Pope Leo leaves for a visit to four countries in Africa next Monday in an ambitious tour to urge world leaders to address the needs of the continent, which is home to more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics.
On his first overseas trip this year, Leo will travel nearly 18,000 km over 10 days, from April 13 to 23, to visit 11 cities and towns in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.
The pope is making the visit with a mission “to help turn the world’s attention to Africa”, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official and close adviser to Leo.
“By heading to Africa so early in his pontificate, the pope shows that Africa matters,” Czerny said. “Leo wants to make sure that Africa is not forgotten by countries and people caught up in their own concerns.”
Outspoken war critic
Leo, who in recent weeks has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, has made only one big overseas trip since being elected last May, visiting Turkey and Lebanon in November and December. He visited Monaco in March.
Vatican officials and African Church leaders say the tour is a personal priority for Leo, the first American pope, and a sign of the value the church places on the continent, where Catholicism is growing fastest.
More than 20% of the world’s Catholics live on the continent, according to Vatican statistics. Three of the countries Leo is visiting have populations where more than half of the people identify as Catholic.
Equatorial Guinea, which has not been visited by a pope since 1982, is more than 70% Catholic. Algeria is an overwhelmingly Muslim country with fewer than 10,000 Catholics among its population of about 48-million.
Popes have dedicated attention to Africa with tours since the late 1960s. Leo’s will be the 24th by a leader of the 1.4-billion-member church.
“The African church is vibrant and alive, full of vocations to the religious life and priesthood,” said Rev Mark Francis, a US priest and a friend of the pope since the 1970s.
Inter-religious dialogue
Leo, 70, who succeeded the late Pope Francis, is relatively young for a pope and in good health. He is planning to give 25 speeches over 10 days as well as holding official meetings with political leaders and local Catholics.
He is expected to encourage Catholic-Muslim dialogue in Algeria and will visit the Great Mosque of Algiers in only his second visit to a mosque as pope.
He will also travel to Annaba, on the northeast coast, for a visit to the ruins of the ancient town of Hippo.
The site has special meaning to Leo, who is a member of the Augustinian religious order. The teachings of St Augustine of Hippo, a major figure in the early Christian Church, inspired the order in the fourth century.
In Cameroon, Leo will hold a “meeting for peace” in Bamenda, the largest city in the country’s Anglophone regions, where fighting between the government and separatist movements has killed thousands since 2017.
‘Hope, peace and reconciliation’
Rev Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, a Jesuit from Nigeria who led his order’s communities across Africa from 2017-23, said the visit will show Africa “as a place of resilience and hope.”
“It will afford Pope Leo an opportunity to bring his message of hope, peace, and reconciliation to places ... where political instability and religious intolerance have triggered conflicts and humanitarian crises,” he said.
On the penultimate day, Leo will visit the Guinean city of Bata and pray at the site of a series of explosions at a military barracks in 2021 that killed more than 100 people.
Djamila Cassoma, 39, a lawyer and entrepreneur in Angola, said she hoped the pope’s tour would raise world awareness about needs in Africa and spur action.
“The choice of Africa for this tour is not random,” she said. “Many of the major global challenges ... are concentrated here, but it is also here that they can be re-imagined.”
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