Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Algeria for the first papal visit to the country, calling for peace on the opening stop of a tour of Africa that signals the continent’s growing importance to the Catholic church.
The 11-day trip, which will include stops in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, is the longest by Pope Leo since being elected to the papacy in May last year.
The choice to visit Africa sends a powerful signal that the continent is one of the church’s top priorities, according to academics and theologians.
Adriaan van Klinken, a professor of religion and African studies at the University of Leeds, said this reflected shifting demographics, with Africa home to one of the fastest-growing Catholic populations and accounting for about 20% of Catholics worldwide. By contrast, the Catholic population in western Europe is in decline.
“Africa is the site of vitality, of growth, of the future of the church,” Van Klinken said.
In the last year alone, 14 new dioceses have been created across Africa, with the Catholic population growing by 7 million, according to John Pontifex, from the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need UK. “A focus on Africa this early on in Pope Leo’s pontificate no doubt reflects a sense that in terms of Catholicism this is a continent that is coming of age,” he said.
The pope, on arrival at Algiers international airport on Monday, was welcomed by Algeria’s president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune. He was later taken to the Maqam Echahid, a monument that commemorates those who died in the 1954-62 Algerian war for independence against French colonial rule.
Father Peter Claver Kogh, the rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers, described the visit as a moment to strengthen bonds between Christian and Muslim communities, and solidify “the desire to have a climate of peace and tolerance among these two religions”.
He added: “That is what the world needs now – a world of fraternal living and living in harmony. That will be the utmost importance of this visit for Christians and Muslims who are here, and all those who desire to live in peace and harmony.”
For Austen Ivereigh, a biographer of Pope Francis, the trip signals continuity with his predecessor’s priorities. In 2019, Francis broke new ground with the joint “human fraternity” document signed with leading Muslim figures. “Leo will want to continue that all-important alliance in building a new world order of peace,” Ivereigh said.
Pontifex said the trip was not just about interfaith relations, but also a sign that the pope remained committed to freedom of religion and belief. “His visit comes at a time when religious freedom in Algeria, be it for Christians, Ahmadi Muslims and more liberal Muslims, has declined in recent years, according to our research.”
The trip has also been viewed as an opportunity to spotlight communities with long histories of injustice and exploitation who are often overlooked by the west.
Lucy Esipila, the regional coordinator for Caritas Africa, said she believed the pope’s visit would have a profound impact on Catholic communities in the region. “At a time when many African nations continue to face conflict, debt burdens, and widening inequalities, this apostolic journey is a powerful expression of synodality, of ‘walking together’ as a global church that listens to voices from the peripheries.”
Algeria is the only Muslim-majority country on the pope’s tour. While its Catholic population is relatively small, the country holds particular significance for Pope Leo as the birthplace of Saint Augustine. Leo is the first pontiff from the Augustinian order, a theological tradition that emphasises a commitment to “live together in harmony”.
Prof Anna Rowlands, the holder of the St Hilda chair in Catholic social thought and practice at Durham University, said: “Starting his visit in Algeria shows the other side of African Christianity that Leo is also deeply attuned to: its ancient legacy.”
North Africa was home to some of the earliest Christian communities before the arrival of Islam and remains central to the church’s intellectual and theological heritage.
Rowlands added that as the former head of the Augustinian order, Pope Leo, then Friar Robert Prevost, travelled frequently to African communities. “The church in Africa is well known to him – probably better known than to any pope in the modern era.”
The decision to make these African countries the focus of his longest trip so far as pope comes alongside his decision not to visit the US. “That’s the unspoken part of this,” said Dr Miles Pattenden, a historian of the Catholic church at the University of Oxford.
Pope Leo not only declined an invitation to the US, Pattenden said, but on 4 July, American independence day, he will be making a visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is the place of arrival for many Africans making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.
“He’s sending an extremely powerful message, which President Trump obviously understands, and that may explain some of his bombastic criticisms of the pope over the past few days,” Pattenden said.
That contrast appears to speak directly to the communities Leo is seeking to reach.
“It’s a feeling of joy,” Father Kogh said of hearing Leo address the people of Algeria. “I’m so glad to have heard that message, because it was what I was expecting: a message of peace, and a call to coexistence and living in fraternity. So my joy redoubles.”
