The Pope will also visit Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea during his 11-day visit to the continent.
Published on 13 April 2026
Pope Leo XIV has launched an ambitious 11-day tour of four countries in Africa, urging global leaders to address the needs of the continent where more than a fifth of the world’s Catholics live.
The first US Pope will visit Algeria for two days on Monday and then embark on a tour of 11 cities and towns in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, covering about 18,000 km (11,185 miles) on 18 flights.
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The pope, who has emerged as a vocal critic of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, has made only one major trip abroad since being elected last May, visiting Turkey and Lebanon in November and December. He visited Monaco in March.
Leo, who is 70 years old, relatively young and in good health for a Pope, is embarking on one of the most complex tours organized for a Pope in decades.
According to Vatican statistics, more than 20 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Africa. In the three sub-Saharan countries the Pope is visiting, more than half the population identifies as Catholic.
However, Algeria is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, with fewer than 10,000 Catholics in its population of approximately 48 million people. This is the first time it will host a Catholic Pope.
Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers, told the AFP news agency the visit aimed to continue “building bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds”.
Pope will give 25 speeches in 11 days
Leo’s visit to Africa is the 24th by a Pope since the late 1960s.
He is expected to touch on a wide range of topics in 25 planned speeches over 11 days, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told reporters Friday, noting the diverse issues the four countries are facing.
Possible topics include the exploitation of natural resources, Catholic-Muslim dialogue and the dangers of political corruption, Bruni said.
Monday’s itinerary includes a visit to the Great Mosque of Algiers, with the world’s tallest minaret, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa overlooking the Bay of Algiers.
Leo plans to pray privately at a chapel dedicated to the 19 priests and nuns killed during Algeria’s 1992-2002 civil war. However, he will not be visiting Tibhirin Monastery, whose monks were abducted and murdered in 1996, an incident still shrouded in mystery.
During his visit, the Pope will also speak frequently about corruption and the role of political leaders in authoritarian regimes, the Vatican said. Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea have presidents who have been in power for decades and have been accused of human rights abuses, which they deny.
The largest event of the itinerary will likely take place in Cameroon on Friday, when the Vatican said some 600,000 people were expected to gather in the coastal city of Douala.
Africa as a whole will account for more than half of the 15.8 million new Catholics baptized in 2023, or 8.3 million new African Catholics, according to the latest Vatican figures. The continent contributes thousands of men to the priesthood and women to religious orders each year, transforming a continent that has long been a target of Western missionaries for exporting its priests and nuns abroad.
According to Vatican statistics, Angola and Cameroon consistently produce the largest number of seminarians on the continent each year.
Fluent in multiple languages, Leo is expected to address audiences in Italian, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish during the trip.
