Antonio Spadaro SJ, [edited and condensed from original UCAN article]
Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic journey—11 days, four countries, an entire continent as horizon—was far more than a pastoral pilgrimage. From Algiers to Malabo, Leo XIV placed Africa at the heart of a sweeping, courageous discourse on peace, justice, and the world’s future. He confronted neo-colonialism, extractivism, tyranny, and corruption, insisting the global peripheries have wisdom to teach.
In Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea, he challenged power, praised Africa’s resilience, and called for solidarity, forgiveness, and a peace rooted in justice. Leo’s message: Africa is not a victim, but a teacher for a fractured world.
From his arrival in Algiers on April 13 to his departure from Malabo on April 23, Leo XIV crafted a coherent vision with Africa as protagonist—the vantage point from which to judge the world’s ills. Peace, war, tyranny, corruption, neo-colonialism, extractivism, exclusion, and fundamentalism were each addressed with candour and coherence, revealing a pastoral project of sweeping ambition.
Algeria: The Pilgrim of Peace in the Land of Augustine
Pope Leo chose Africa—and specifically Algeria, home of St. Augustine—as the stage for his first journey. In Algiers, he declared himself a “pilgrim of peace,” emphasising the primacy of encounter over strategy. He confronted global power imbalances, referencing Algeria’s colonial history, and called for a new chapter rooted in dignity and solidarity. Citing Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, he warned that poorly oriented globalisation breeds poverty and inequality. The message: international politics must heed the world’s peripheries—and Africa has vital lessons for all.
Pope Leo repeated his cry: enough wars and exiles. Quoting Augustine, he said power is for service, not domination, and urged leaders to break corruption’s chains and pursue real human development
At the Maqam Echahid monument to Algeria’s martyrs, the pope reflected on freedom and peace. God desires peace for every nation—not merely the absence of conflict, but peace rooted in justice and dignity. True peace, he stressed, is possible only through forgiveness. The future belongs to people of peace; justice will outlast injustice, and violence will never have the last word. These words spoke to Algeria and to all places riven by conflict.
Visiting the Grand Mosque of Algiers, Pope Leo highlighted the importance of interreligious dialogue, linking the search for God to the dignity of all people, and prayed for universal peace and justice.
Cameroon: Disarmed peace and the denunciation of warlords
In Yaoundét the journey’s political heart, Pope Leo offered a manifesto on peace and good governance. Cameroon, “Africa in miniature”, is a treasure of cultures, a promise of fraternity and a foundation for lasting peace. He denounced violence, displacement, and hopelessness in the country’s troubled regions. Peace, he argued, must be “disarmed” and “disarming not built on fear or weapons”, creating trust and empathy
Pope Leo repeated his cry: enough wars and exiles. Quoting Augustine, he said power is for service, not domination, and urged leaders to break corruption’s chains and pursue real human development.
The pope praised women as architects of peace and said their voices must be fully recognised in decision-making.
Citing Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, he warned that poorly oriented globalisation breeds poverty and inequality. The message: international politics must heed the world’s peripheries—and Africa has vital lessons for all
In Bamenda, he met a community ravaged by the Anglophone crisis and condemned the warlords: a moment destroys, but a lifetime is needed to rebuild. Billions are found for weapons, he said, but not for healing or education.
He described the perverse spiral of extractivism—plundering Africa’s resources to fund weapons, fuelling endless destabilisation. “The world is destroyed by a handful of dominators and held together by a multitude of brothers and sisters in solidarity.”
He praised Christian-Muslim collaboration in Bamenda as a model, warning against those who twist religion for violence or power.
At the Catholic University of Central Africa, Pope Leo challenged youth and scholars to pioneer a new humanism in the digital age—aware of both technology’s promise and its risks for society and the environment.
Angola: Joy and hope as political virtues
In Luanda, Pope Leo introduced joy and hope as “political” virtues. Africa, he said, is a “reserve of joy and hope” because its young and poor still dream and long to rise again.
The future belongs to people of peace; justice will outlast injustice, and violence will never have the last word. These words spoke to Algeria and to all places riven by conflict
The wisdom of a people cannot be extinguished by any ideology, and the longing for the infinite that dwells in the human heart is a principle of social transformation more profound than any political or cultural programme.
The pope denounced the “extractive logic” causing suffering and catastrophe, imposed as the only model of development.
He repeated Pope St. Paul VI’s critique of a materialistic civilisation that claims to be the future.
Most radical was his analysis of tyranny: despots render souls passive, sowing sadness, fear and submission. Only joy and solidarity, he argued, can liberate people from political alienation.
He quoted Pope Francis again on how power sows hopelessness and distrust, disguised as defence of values. Authentic joy, the fruit of solidarity, is a force for liberation.
In Saurimo, he urged the Church to remain rooted in faith, contributing to justice and peace in Africa and beyond.
He condemned speculation on raw materials, neglect of the environment, and disregard for the dignity of labour. Armed conflicts, he said, are driven by the colonisation of oil and minerals, ignoring law and self-determination
Equatorial Guinea: The City of God and the City of Peace
In Malabo, the final stop, Pope Leo reflected on Augustine’s two cities: the earthly, rooted in pride and power; the City of God, founded on love of neighbour.
Addressing Equatorial Guinea, building its new capital Ciudad de la Paz, he challenged all to consider which city they serve.
Here, the pope launched his sharpest denunciations of contemporary international politics. He named exclusion as “the new face of social injustice”, highlighting the gap between the wealthy and the majority who lack essentials despite access to technology.
He condemned speculation on raw materials, neglect of the environment, and disregard for the dignity of labour. Armed conflicts, he said, are driven by the colonisation of oil and minerals, ignoring law and self-determination.
The pope also noted that new technologies are often developed for military ends, not the common good. He warned that without a course correction toward assuming political responsibility and respecting international institutions and agreements, the destiny of humanity risks being tragically compromised.
Most radical was his analysis of tyranny: despots render souls passive, sowing sadness, fear and submission. Only joy and solidarity, he argued, can liberate people from political alienation
“God does not want this. His holy Name must never be invoked to justify actions of death,” the pope said.
At Bata Stadium, Pope Leo met with young people and families, celebrating a living, incarnated faith and the vibrant heritage of their cultures. He told the young the future is theirs, but it requires effort, discipline, and meaningful work.
He encouraged vocations to priesthood and consecrated life.
Addressing families, the pope insisted that welcoming life requires love, commitment, and care, as the family remains the ground of human and Christian growth.
He quoted Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, on marriage as a living sculpture of God, and called the faithful to resist stereotypes that diminish family value. Charity lived in the home, he said, can transform society so that all are respected and none forgotten.
The final public act was Mass in Malabo on April 23.
Pope Leo chose the episode of the Ethiopian eunuch’s encounter with the deacon Philip [Acts 8:26–40] as the lens through which to read the entire African journey. The figure of the eunuch—rich yet enslaved, intelligent yet not fully free, his energies consumed by a power that controls and dominates him—became in the pope’s hands a parable of Africa itself: a continent of immense resources whose wealth serves others, whose labour benefits foreign masters.
God does not want this. His holy Name must never be invoked to justify actions of death
Pope Leo XIV
Yet the eunuch, liberated by the gospel, becomes a protagonist of his own story—as Leo hoped for Africa.
The pope linked the manna in Exodus and the Eucharist as the bread of a new covenant. Against “individualistic sadness”, he warned, a closed heart leaves no room for the poor or God’s joy.
He offered condolences for the late vicar general of Malabo, and encouraged the Church to continue the disciples’ mission, making the gospel “good bread for all.”
The message to international politics: A synthesis
Pope Leo’s African journey was a powerful message to global politics. Though the trip was marked by public dispute with the US president, Donald Trump, the pope clarified that his speeches were prepared well in advance and were not polemics.
Every word the pontiff spoke was read as a response to the White House. On the flight to Luanda, the pope noted that the speeches had been prepared weeks in advance and that engaging in polemics with Trump “is not at all in my interest.”
Papal texts are, in fact, the product of a long editorial process that precedes departure. And yet, when the pope denounces “despots and tyrants” who render souls “passive and enslaved to power,” or the “colonization of oil and mineral deposits with no regard for international law,” these words cross every border.
Catholic social teaching speaks universally but resonates everywhere. Pope Leo avoids naming governments, using the refinement of Vatican diplomacy. No country is excluded from his challenge.
A message built on five pillars
• Repudiating war and calling for peace rooted in justice and forgiveness;
• Denouncing neo-colonialism and extractivism;
• Critiquing tyranny and corruption as systems, not just personal vices;
• Defending international law and multilateralism;
• And affirming Africa as a subject, not an object, of world history—a bearer of wisdom and joy.
Marking the anniversary of Pope Francis’s death, Pope Leo renewed his predecessor’s legacy, grounding it in Augustinian tradition and applying it boldly to the crises of 2026: AI in warfare, resource speculation, climate, digital exclusion, and global polarisation.
His African journey marks the first great act of a pontificate determined to speak to the world.
