Abuja — For Mauro Rui Callado Cortêz, a Catholic lay teacher in Angola, the “unique opportunity” to see Pope Leo XIV in person was unmissable, even though serious illness should have confined him to bed. “My visual contact with the Holy Father was a unique moment; it transmitted such a great physical and spiritual lightness that the feeling of satisfaction doesn’t end,” Cortêz told CNN about his experience of seeing the papal car pass by outside Luanda International Airport, shortly after Leo’s arrival on Saturday. Angola was the third stop on an 11-day tour of four African nations that has prompted wide excitement among the faithful on a continent, which is home to around 20 percent of the world’s Catholics – but also disquiet in some quarters.
Critics have voiced concern that Leo’s decision to visit Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, both governed by long-serving leaders who maintain tight control over the Central African nations, has given tacit approval to authoritarian regimes. The trip has been further complicated by a diplomatic dispute with the Trump administration regarding the pope’s stance on the Middle Eastern conflict. The Pope has sought to downplay the perceived conflict, emphasizing that his trip to Africa focuses on peacebuilding and that he’s not seeking to “debate” the president.
Leo has taken a strong stance against corruption and the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources by foreign powers in his public addresses. He’s also advocated for peace and reconciliation in areas affected by conflict. But the optics of the tour, which coincides with the first anniversary of the death of Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor and a champion of the poor, remain troubling for many.
While in Africa, the pope has been greeted by sizeable crowds. In Bamenda, the center of a conflict between English-speaking separatists and the Francophone government in Cameroon, there was a festive atmosphere as Leo took part in a peace meeting and celebrated a Mass. “We want peace, that is all we want,” said Pamela Nze ahead of the Mass.
Earlier, Jamconfidence Masha waved a peace plant as she waited for the pope to arrive. She works as a clothes maker in Bamenda – her shop was destroyed during the conflict. She said the pope was bringing a message of “love, hope and unity.” On Tuesday, on the flight from Angola to Equatorial Guinea, Leo paid tribute to Pope Francis, on the one-year anniversary of his predecessor’s death.
He described Francis’s life as a “great gift” to the church and the world, emphasizing the late pope’s “closeness to the poorest, to the least (among us), to the sick, to children, to the elderly.” A complicated tour The trip, which concludes this week in Equatorial Guinea, began with a historic visit to Algeria on April 13, where Leo became the first pope to visit the predominantly Muslim nation. From there, he traveled to Cameroon, where he led a large Mass in Douala that drew over 100,000 attendees. On Sunday in Angola, the pope addressed an audience of approximately 130,000 at two events, urging the nation to move beyond its longstanding divisions following a nearly three-decade war that ended in 2002.
Forty-four-year-old catechist Cortêz, who witnessed the visits of Pope John Paul II to his hometown, Huambo, in 1992 and Pope Benedict XVI to Luanda, the Angolan capital, in 2009, said he viewed Leo’s visit as “a great blessing” for the Southern African country, where Catholics are the largest religious group. Angola, where Portuguese is spoken, is one of several African countries with a Catholic heritage tracing back to the European colonial era. A few days earlier, on April 15, Leo arrived in Cameroon at a politically significant moment.
The country’s 93-year-old President Paul Biya had just signed a decree reinstating the position of vice president for the first time in his 43-year rule. This legislation, which received parliamentary approval about 10 days before the pope’s visit, allows the vice president to automatically assume the presidency if Biya were to die or become unable to govern. Father Ludovic Lado, a priest from Cameroon, expressed apprehension — shared by opposition groups — that this could pave the way for dynastic succession.
In November, he sent a letter to the pope, asking him to rethink his planned visit to the country, which the Holy See acknowledged, according to a letter Lado posted on Facebook, saying it was following the country’s situation “with keen attention.” Biya won his eighth presidential term in October, allowing him potentially to remain in power until he’s nearly 100 years old. His re-election sparked widespread protests, during which Cameroonian security forces reportedly killed at least 48 people. Opponents of the regime claim that the election was fraudulent.
Cameroon’s Constitutional Council dismissed petitions alleging electoral fraud, citing a lack of evidence. “The Central African region the pope is visiting includes some of the most entrenched and authoritari