After an 11-day tour of four African nations, Pope Leo XIV returned to Rome, wrapping up a schedule that took him from North Africa to the Atlantic coast and back again, with stop-by-stop messaging that, according to reporting on the itinerary, blended calls for peace with warnings about corruption, exploitation and the aftershocks of colonialism.
The coverage described the pace of the trip as especially intense: Leo flew on 18 flights covering more than 17,700 kilometers (about 11,000 miles), including three flights on a single Wednesday that crisscrossed Equatorial Guinea from the west coast to the far east border with Gabon and back again. Throughout the tour, Vatican officials and reporting on the itinerary said the pope emphasized themes including Christian-Muslim coexistence, the overexploitation of the region’s natural and human resources, corruption, migration, and colonial legacy.
The trip also played out alongside the pope’s broader confrontation with U.S. President Donald Trump over the war in Iran, which the reporting said had helped give Leo a global platform for speaking in “sometimes explosive terms” about problems on the continent. As Leo headed toward Angola, the reporting said he again addressed the back-and-forth with Trump, saying it was “not in my interest at all” to debate the American president over the Iran war, while continuing to preach a message of peace.
In Algeria on April 13-15, the itinerary highlighted the pope’s pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Augustine, including a visit to archaeological ruins tied to the fifth-century Christian figure who lived, died and wrote influential works. In Annaba, described as the modern-day Hippo, Leo met a community of Augustinians and celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine overlooking the ruins, while the reporting also said migration and Christian-Muslim coexistence were among the top themes during the stop.
The Algeria segment also included an explicit focus on migration, with the pope paying homage to migrants killed in shipwrecks trying to reach Europe and visiting the Great Mosque in Algiers. The reporting framed those gestures within a larger message aimed at coexistence in a country described as majority Sunni and a former French colony on the Mediterranean coast.
From April 15-18 in Cameroon, one of the described highlights was Leo’s remarks at a “peace meeting” in Bamenda, identified as the epicenter of the country’s separatist conflict. The reporting said the pope blasted the “handful of tyrants” who are ravaging the planet with war and exploitation, and Vatican officials described the message as one that was meant for all those responsible for wars and exploitation, not only those involved in the separatist crisis.
The Cameroon portion also included meetings with both religious and political leaders, including the visit to Cameroon’s 93-year-old president, Paul Biya. In those encounters, the reporting said the pope called for an end to the “chains of corruption” and urged upright leadership, adding that Biya has been accused of using corrupt means and targeting opponents to remain in power.
The itinerary in Angola ran April 18-21 and included both religious and political messaging. The reporting said Leo prayed at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, described as a Marian shrine and an important Catholic pilgrimage site, and it noted that the church has links to Angola’s history of slavery, including Portuguese colonizers who built the church after establishing a fortress and used the site as a baptism point for enslaved people sent across the Atlantic. While the reporting said Leo did not directly address slavery, it said his visit drew reflections on his own complex heritage after research last year found he has both Black and white ancestors that include enslaved people and slave owners.
In Angola, the report also described the broader context of poverty despite oil and mineral wealth, and it said the pope met with President Joao Lourenco to challenge current Angolan leaders to break a “cycle of interests” that has exploited Africa and its people for centuries. The itinerary further included Mass and direct messages to young people, with the reporting saying Leo urged people to resist corruption in the economic hub of Douala.
Leo’s final stop, Equatorial Guinea, ran April 21-23 and was described as the most delicate diplomatic challenge of the tour. Reporting described the country as having been led for nearly 50 years by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who is accused of widespread corruption and holding on to power through harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.
In Equatorial Guinea, the reporting said the pope met with government authorities, diplomats and students, denouncing the “lust for power” and the “colonization” of Africa’s minerals. The itinerary also included visits to a psychiatric hospital and a notorious prison, where the pope delivered a message of hope and drew attention to prison conditions and human rights abuses and injustices that campaigners have denounced for years.
The reporting said Equatorial Guinea also carried added significance after it emerged that it was one of several African nations that received millions of dollars in contentious deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own. By the time Leo left the country and returned to Rome, the trip’s end had combined that complex diplomatic context with the tour’s repeated emphasis on peace and integrity in places where the reporting described wars, exploitation and corruption as central barriers to stability.