Pope Leo to visit Africa in first major overseas trip

VATICAN CITY--Pope Leo XIV will be embarking on a 10 day trip to Africa as well as Monaco and Spain, the Holy See Press Office said on Wednesday. 

 His schedule of foreign pastoral visits this year starts with Monaco at the end of March, followed by his 10 day Africa stay which will include Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea. Lastly he will visit Spain in June with stops in Madrid, the Canary Islands and in Barcelona to inaugurate the tallest tower in the Sagrada Familia.

 The pontiff expressed in December to journalists the reason for his desire to visit Algeria which will take place from April 13 -15. “I hope to go to Algeria to visit the places of St. Augustine, but also in order to continue the conversation of dialogue, of building bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world.” Algeria is a 99 percent Sunni Muslim country. 

 From Algeria the Pope will travel to Cameroon where there is currently a separatist crisis. The majority of people in Cameroon identify as Christians, making up over 60 percent of the population, with Muslims making up approximately 30 percent. 

 Third he will travel to Angola where there are a reported 17.9 Million Catholics. The country's largest religious population, around 49 percent. 

 To end his Africa tour the leader of the world's Roman Catholics will visit the Spanish speaking African country of Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea is one of the most Catholic nations in sub-Saharan Africa with 81.5 percent of the population being Catholic. 

 This will only be the second papal trip to Equatorial Guinea, only previously visited by St. John Paul on Feb. 18, 1982. 

 This is Pope Leo XIV’s first major overseas trip.