The Vatican on Wednesday announced a busy foreign travel schedule for Pope Leo XIV in the first half of 2026, confirming that the pope will make a one-day trip to Monaco before embarking on a longer visit to four African countries. The announcement sets out the pontiff’s international calendar as Leo prepares for a period in which, officials said, he can travel more freely now that the 2025 Holy Year has ended.
In addition to the international trips, the Vatican said the schedule will include what it called a grand tour of Italy starting in May, consisting of a half-dozen one-day visits across the peninsula. The Vatican announcement framed the broader travel push as a shift from the early months of Leo’s papacy, when international movement had largely been on hold after he was elected in May.
The Vatican said Leo, who will be 70 later this year, has been able to focus on internal pastoral visits during Lent, including visits to a Roman parish each Sunday. The schedule will now extend beyond Italy, beginning with Monaco on March 28.
After Leo’s Monaco visit, the pope is set to travel for 10 days to Africa, with stops in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea scheduled for April 13 through April 23. The Vatican said the plan echoes the kind of extensive foreign trip that only Pope Francis had undertaken in recent times, when Francis visited multiple countries in 2024.
The Vatican singled out the Algeria stop as particularly significant for Leo because of Algeria’s connection to the life and death of St. Augustine of Hippo, the fifth-century inspiration for Leo’s religious order. The pope’s Africa itinerary also places him in several countries where the Vatican plans to engage local Catholic communities during the trip window.
Following the Africa visit, the Vatican said Leo will spend nearly a week in Spain, from June 6 to June 12, with Leo expected to be in Barcelona on June 10 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of architect Antoni Gaudí, whose Sagrada Familia basilica has reached a new milestone in height.
While the Vatican did not announce additional foreign travel beyond the first half of 2026, Leo is expected to visit his beloved Peru and possibly Argentina and Uruguay later in the year, and the Vatican confirmed he will not travel to the United States in 2026. Instead, the Vatican said Leo will be on Italy’s southern island of Lampedusa on July 4, a location that serves as a major arrival point in Europe for migrants smuggled to the continent from North Africa.