Pope Leo XIV on Monday began a 10-day, four-nation tour of Africa aimed at highlighting social and economic challenges on the continent, while also navigating an unusual public clash with US President Donald Trump.
The pontiff departed Rome’s Fiumicino Airport shortly after 9 a.m., heading first to Algeria, the opening stop of an ambitious itinerary that will also include Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
The trip covering 11 cities and towns across nearly 18,000 kilometres and involving 18 flights is one of the most logistically complex overseas journeys undertaken by a modern pope, according to Vatican officials.
The visit comes at a time of heightened geopolitical tension, following a rare direct attack from Trump on Sunday that drew criticism from sections of the Catholic community and added an unexpected political undertone to the trip.
Despite the controversy, Vatican officials said the primary focus of the visit remains Africa, where more than one-fifth of the world’s Catholics live.
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“The pope is making the visit with a mission to help turn the world’s attention to Africa,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official and adviser to Leo.
Leo, the first US-born pope, has increasingly positioned himself as a global voice on conflict, inequality and development, recently criticising the ongoing Iran-related war and describing global violence as “madness”.
The Africa tour marks only his fourth foreign trip since his election last May, following earlier visits to Turkey, Lebanon and Monaco.
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In Algeria, Pope Leo is scheduled to meet President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and address political leaders, before visiting the Great Mosque of Algiers, in what will be only his second visit to a mosque since becoming pontiff.
The stop is particularly symbolic given Algeria’s overwhelmingly Muslim population of around 48 million people, with Catholics numbering fewer than 10,000. It is the first time the country has hosted a pope.
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said the pope is expected to deliver around 25 speeches during the 10-day tour, covering a wide range of issues affecting the four countries on his itinerary.
These are expected to include natural resource exploitation, interfaith relations, political corruption and governance challenges.
Both Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, which are also on the schedule, are led by long-serving presidents who have faced persistent allegations of human rights abuses — claims their governments deny.
One of the largest public events of the tour is expected in Cameroon, where authorities anticipate up to 600,000 people at a Mass in the coastal city of Douala.
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Leo, aged 70, is considered relatively young and in good health for a pope, and is known for his linguistic fluency, which Vatican officials say will allow him to address audiences in Italian, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish during the trip.
In Algeria, the pope will also visit Annaba on Tuesday, where he is expected to tour the ruins of the ancient city of Hippo — a site closely linked to St Augustine, a key figure in Christian theology and the inspiration for the Augustinian order to which Leo belongs.
The Vatican says the journey reflects a broader push to elevate Africa’s role within the global Catholic Church, both as a spiritual centre and as a region facing urgent social and economic pressures.
Leo’s visit is part of a long tradition of papal trips to Africa, with the continent having hosted 23 previous papal visits since the late 1960s.
However, officials say this latest tour stands out for its scale, pace and geopolitical backdrop, coming at a time of heightened global tensions and shifting international alignments.
As the papal aircraft continued toward Algiers, Vatican officials described the journey as both pastoral and political in significance — one aimed at strengthening ties with African Catholics while amplifying the continent’s voice on the global stage.
