A journey to Africa was what he wanted at the beginning of his pontificate, Leo says

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday said his recent visit to Africa was to bring a message of peace amid war.

Leo visited Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea from April 13 to 23, a journey that was sometimes overshadowed by comments made by U.S. President Donald Trump as it began.

The pontiff was speaking at his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 29, and said he had been thinking of a journey to Africa since the very beginning of his pontificate nearly a year ago, on May 8, 2025.

“Providence would have it that the first stop should be the very country where the sites of Saint Augustine are found, namely Algeria,” said Leo, who is a member of the Augustinian order.

“Thus,” Leo said, he found himself “revisiting the roots” of his “spiritual identity” and also “crossing and strengthening bridges that are very important for the world and the Church today: The bridge with the very fruitful age of the Fathers of the Church; the bridge with the Islamic world; and the bridge with the African continent.”

He noted the other three countries he visited had Christian majorities.

“The visit to Cameroon allowed me to reinforce the call to work together for reconciliation and peace, for that country too is, unfortunately, marked by tensions and violence,” Pope Leo said, pointing to the part of his journey that took him to Bamenda in Cameroon’s Anglophone region, where an insurgency has been underway for a decade.

RELATED: Cameroon bishop says Pope Leo’s visit could be a turning point for war-ravaged country

He said Cameroon is known as “Africa in miniature”, because of the variety and richness of its natural environment and its resources.

“[We] can also interpret this expression to mean that the great needs of the entire continent are found in Cameroon: The need for a fair distribution of wealth; the need to provide space for the young, overcoming endemic corruption, that of promoting integral and sustainable development, countering the various forms of neo-colonialism with far-sighted international cooperation,” the pope said.

He then spoke about his visit to Angola, which was ruled for centuries by Portugal.

“Like many African countries, after achieving independence, Angola went through a troubled period, which in its case was marked by a long and bloody civil war. In the crucible of this history, God has guided and purified the Church, increasingly converting her in the service of the Gospel, human promotion, reconciliation and peace,” Leo said.

Lastly, he spoke about Equatorial Guinea, which happened 170 years after its first evangelization.

“With the wisdom of tradition and the light of Christ, the Guinean people have weathered the vicissitudes of their history and, in recent days, in the presence of the Pope, have renewed with great enthusiasm their determination to walk together towards a future of hope,” the pope said.

Before the pope left for Africa, Trump caused a stir by posting on social media a statement attacking Leo for his policies.

RELATED: Ahead of U.S. midterms, is Trump telling Catholics, ‘You’re Fired’?

The pontiff later said that the statements he made during his visit to the continent had been written weeks before he left and were not about the American president.

He made no mention of Trump during his General Audience remarks.