Pope Leo XIV departed Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport this morning, at 9:06am touching down in Algiers to begin a sweeping Apostolic Journey across four African nations.
The first-ever papal trip to Algeria opens an intense 11-day tour that will also bring the first U.S.-born pope to Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.
The journey will cover more than 11,000 miles across 18 flights, with the Pope delivering speeches, homilies, and greetings in four languages English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Algeria holds particular personal significance for the Pontiff. His Augustinian religious order was inspired by the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo, the fifth-century theological giant of the early Christian church who was born in what is today Algeria and spent nearly his entire life there.
In the capital Algiers, the Pope will meet civil authorities and visit the Great Mosque of Algiers, one of the world’s largest mosques, in a gesture aimed at reinforcing Christian-Muslim dialogue.
He will close Monday’s engagements with a gathering at the Our Lady of Africa basilica and prayers at a nearby monument for migrants who died in shipwrecks attempting to reach Europe.
The broader journey is being closely watched as both a pastoral mission and a geopolitical statement. More than 20 percent of the world’s Catholics live in Africa, and Africa as a whole contributed more than half of all new Catholics baptized in 2023.
Among the central themes Pope Leo will address are peace, migration, the environment, young people, and the family and this marks the first papal visit to Algeria in history, as well as the first papal visit in decades to the other three countries.
The trip also comes amid diplomatic tensions, after President Donald Trump issued a sharp public rebuke of the Pope on Sunday night following Leo’s condemnation of what he called the “delusion of omnipotence” fueling ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
