By OSV News
Pope Leo XIV concluded his first trip to Africa April 23, capping a four-country visit marked by urgent calls for peace, direct engagement with conflict zones and a backdrop of international political tension.

Traveling April 13–23 through Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, the pope met civil and religious leaders, celebrated public Masses and encouraged Catholics to remain steadfast witnesses to the Gospel.

His visit brought him into regions scarred by violence, including Cameroon’s separatist conflict, while also addressing inequality and corruption in Angola, promoting interreligious dialogue in Algeria and a just society in Equatorial Guinea.

– Algeria –
Pope Leo’s 11-day trip began with an unexpected controversy after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized him in a late-night April 12 post on Truth Social.

Trump called the pope “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” accusing him of believing “it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” The remarks followed the pope’s criticism of the Iran war and his repeated calls for peace.

Journalists aboard the papal flight quickly pressed for a response.

“I have no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do,” Pope Leo said.

“We are not politicians,” he added. “We are not looking to make foreign policy … but I do believe in the message of the Gospel: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ is the message that the world needs to hear today.”

The remarks sparked backlash from religious and political leaders, but the pope declined to escalate tensions.

“I don’t want to get into a debate,” he said, emphasizing that his mission is to proclaim peace.

“I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”

Despite the dispute, Pope Leo struck a positive tone before landing, saying he was “very happy to visit the land of St. Augustine again.”

In Algiers, he visited the Great Mosque, calling the encounter a sign “that we can learn to respect one another, live in harmony and build a world of peace.”

Later, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa overlooking the Mediterranean, he honored Algeria’s Christian martyrs and highlighted interreligious dialogue in the Muslim-majority nation.

The basilica, he said, is a “sign of our desire for peace and unity,” symbolizing “a Church of living stones, where communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape.”

On April 14, the pope traveled to Annaba, near the ruins of ancient Hippo Regius, where St. Augustine spent his final years. The visit held personal significance; Pope Leo has often described himself as “a son of Augustine.”

Celebrating Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine, he urged Christians to follow the saint’s example, “fervently seeking the truth and serving Christ with ardent faith.”

“Be heirs to this tradition, bearing witness through fraternal charity … as a hope of salvation for the world,” he said.

Addressing Algeria’s small Christian community, he praised their quiet witness.

“Your presence in this country is like incense,” he said. “A glowing grain that spreads fragrance because it gives glory to the Lord and joy and comfort to so many.”

– Cameroon –
During his flight to Cameroon, Pope Leo reflected on Algeria as “a special blessing,” noting that St. Augustine’s life offers a vision of unity and respect across differences.

That message carried into Cameroon, a country scarred by separatist violence. Addressing authorities in Yaoundé, the pope acknowledged the suffering caused by conflict in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions.

Since 2017, fighting between separatist militias and government forces has killed more than 6,500 people and displaced over 500,000.

“Lives have been lost, families displaced, children deprived of schooling and young people no longer see a future,” he said. “Behind the numbers are the faces, stories and shattered hopes of real people.”

Days before his arrival, separatist groups declared a three-day ceasefire to allow safe travel during the visit.

The highlight of the April 15–18 stop was the pope’s visit to Bamenda, in the heart of the conflict zone. Addressing Catholics at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, the pope was met with enthusiasm after declaring, “I am here to proclaim peace.”

After hearing testimony from local residents – including a chief imam who described a deadly attack on a mosque – the pope strongly condemned violence carried out in God’s name.

“But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain,” he said, warning against dragging what is sacred “into darkness and filth.”

Celebrating Mass for 20,000 people at Bamenda’s airport, he urged hope rooted in faith.

“This is the moment to change, to transform the story of this country,” he said. “The time has come, today and not tomorrow.”

He called on Cameroonians to “restore the mosaic of unity” by embracing the country’s diversity.

On April 17, he celebrated Mass in Douala for an estimated 120,000 faithful, urging Africans to share God’s love by feeding the hungry and offering spiritual nourishment.

Though the visit brought hope, media coverage continued to frame the trip through the lens of tensions with Trump – something the pope later addressed directly.

– Angola –
While the pope’s warning to those who use God to justify violence resonated with suffering Cameroonians in Bamenda, several media outlets ran headlines insinuating that Pope Leo was making an indirect dig at Trump.

En route to Angola, Pope Leo clarified that his remarks in Cameroon had been prepared weeks earlier and were not directed at the U.S. president.

“My speeches were written well before the president ever commented,” he said. “It is not in my interest to debate,” adding “there has been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all its aspects.”

Arriving in Luanda, he shifted focus to Angola’s challenges and the Church’s role in offering hope. Home to more than 20 million Catholics, Angola has deep Christian roots but continues to struggle with inequality, corruption and the legacy of a civil war that claimed up to 800,000 lives.

Addressing government leaders, the pope urged them to prioritize the common good.

“Place the common good before every particular interest,” he said. “Never confuse your own part with the whole.”

He warned that the people have suffered when power is abused.

“They bear the scars not only of material exploitation, but also of the presumption of imposing an idea upon others,” he said.

On April 19, Pope Leo celebrated Mass for about 100,000 faithful in Kilamba. Reflecting on the Gospel story of the road to Emmaus, he cautioned against despair in societies marked by prolonged suffering.

“When one is long immersed in a history characterized by pain, one can risk losing hope and remaining paralyzed by discouragement,” he said.

Afterward, he traveled to the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, southern Africa’s most visited Catholic shrine, where tens of thousands had gathered – many camping for days in intense heat.

Calling the shrine a place where “the heart of the Church” is alive, he noted its enduring role in Angola’s spiritual life.

“For centuries, many have prayed here in joy and sorrow,” he said. “Mama Muxima has quietly kept the heart of the Church alive and beating.”

On April 20, the pope flew east to Saurimo, near Angola’s largest diamond mine. There, he visited a nursing home housing 74 elderly residents, many rejected by their families due to superstitious beliefs.

“The care of the weakest is a sign of the quality of a nation’s social life,” he said. “The elderly must not only be assisted, but listened to, because they preserve the wisdom of a people.”

Celebrating Mass for tens of thousands, he also addressed exploitation linked to the diamond industry.

“How often the hope of many is frustrated by violence, exploited by the overbearing and defrauded by the rich,” he said.

“We were not born to become slaves,” he added. “Every form of oppression, violence and dishonesty negates the resurrection of Christ, the supreme gift of our freedom.”

– Equatorial Guinea –
The final leg of Pope Leo’s 11-day journey took him to Equatorial Guinea. Upon landing on the island of Malabo, the pope was welcomed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled the oil-rich Central African nation since seizing power in a 1979 coup and is widely regarded as one of the world’s most authoritarian leaders.

Nevertheless, in his address to the country’s civil authorities, the pope appealed for justice and ethical governance in a country long criticized for corruption and human rights abuses.

Drawing from St. Augustine’s classic work “The City of God,” Pope Leo noted that the “city of God” is characterized by love, especially for the poor, while the “earthly city … is centered upon the proud love of self, on the lust for power and worldly glory that leads to destruction.”

“Every human being can benefit from the ancient realization of living on earth as a pilgrim,” he said. “It is essential to discern the difference between that which lasts and that which passes, remaining free from the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion.”

Celebrating Mass April 22 at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the eastern city of Mongomo, the second-largest Catholic Church in Africa, the pope renewed his call to the country’s leaders and citizens to prioritize the common good.

“May the Lord help you to become a society in which everyone, each according to their respective responsibilities, works ever more fully to serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged,” he said.

In his final Mass in Malabo Stadium April 23, Pope Leo offered a word of hope to the country’s Catholics, urging them to seek strength, justice and hope from the Gospel and the sacraments.

Encouraging the faithful to “joyfully proclaim” that “Christ is everything for us,” Pope Leo reminded Christians that in Jesus, “we find the fullness of life and meaning.”

“Our problems do not disappear in the Lord’s presence, but they are illuminated,” he said. “Just as every cross finds redemption in Jesus, so too the story of our lives finds its meaning in the Gospel.”

As the Mass concluded, the pope bid farewell to the African continent, saying that his visit was “an invaluable treasure of faith, hope, and charity.”

Highlighting the continent’s significance, the pope said that “today, Africa is called to contribute significantly to the holiness and missionary character of the Christian people.”

“I entrust this intention to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, to whom I commend myself wholeheartedly, as well as your families, your communities, your nation, and all the peoples of Africa,” the pope said.

By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Catholics across the Middle East are reeling with shock and sorrow, and responding with prayer, amid joint strikes Israeli and U.S. forces launched on Iran Feb. 28, plunging the region into war.

The U.S. and Israel revealed that Iran’s supreme leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is among the country’s senior leaders killed in the initial assault, which targeted Tehran and cities across Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump described the attacks as part of “major combat operations” to overthrow Iran’s regime in order to “defend the American people.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the Feb. 28 “preemptive strike” against Iran, with a state of emergency declared across Israel.

Iran has retaliated with counterstrikes, targeting Israel and several U.S.-interest locations across a number of Middle East nations.

Casualties on all sides – including countries caught in the crossfire – are still being assessed amid the ongoing exchanges.

Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, claimed that a girls’ school in Minab was bombed in the U.S.-Israeli air assault and showed a photo.

“Dozens of innocent children have been murdered at this site alone,” he said. “These crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered.”

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres begged “all parties to return immediately to the negotiating table,” warning “the alternative is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”

On March 1, Pope Leo XVI spoke out in the Sunday Angelus at St. Peter’s Square telling the warring parties they had a “moral responsibility” to end the fighting and return to diplomacy before the violence led to an “irreparable abyss.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned, “We are faced with the possibility of a tragedy of immense proportions.”

Bishop Aldo Berardi, apostolic vicar of northern Arabia issued a Feb. 28 statement on Facebook, urging the faithful “to remain calm, united in prayer, and attentive to the safety of everyone.”

“Please follow carefully the instructions of civil authorities and take all necessary precautions,” said Bishop Berardi.

“Let us remain united in faith and charity, caring especially for the elderly, the sick, and the vulnerable,” said Bishop Berardi. “May Our Lady of Arabia, our mother, watch over us all.”

Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar M. Warda of Irbil, Iraq, told OSV News March 2 he “could see the whole scene” of nearby missile attacks by Iran on a U.S. military base near the Irbil airport.

“The missiles … the noise and the bombing,” he said. “You can imagine the fear and horror.”

“Prayer is the only hope we have,” he said.

In Israel, Benedictine Father Nikodemus Schnabel – abbot of Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in the heart of Jerusalem and of Tabgha, the community’s priory on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee – sheltered with some 60 pilgrims at Tabgha, the revered site of Jesus Christ’s multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

“It was always in the air that … something could happen,” he explained.

He said their international group had been in the shelter for two hours, describing the time – which video obtained by OSV News showed the pilgrims praying and singing – as unifying amid the attacks.

“It was a good experience. We don’t know each other, but then we sing songs in different languages. We pray together,” he explained.

He said the experience was an example of Benedictine hospitality.

“Very often I say, ‘I want that our two monasteries are two islands of hope in an ocean of suffering,’” said Father Schnabel. “And this was exactly the feeling. We were also today an island of hope in an ocean of suffering.”

Jesuit Father John Paul, rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute – located between Bethlehem and Jerusalem – told OSV News he believed “Jerusalem is not a target area.”

The priest, whose institute is staffed by both Palestinians and Israelis, pointed to the sorrow evoked by the strikes, which follow the Israel-Hamas war and ongoing tensions between Israel and Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

“Overall, with local Palestinians” there is “a feeling of real sadness – my guess is with Israelis as well,” said Father John Paul.

Father Schnabel said the pilgrims at Tagbha were praying for all affected.

“We pray for the others … So let’s pray for the people in Iran. Let’s pray for the people in Israel. Let’s pray for the people in Palestine. Let’s pray for the people in the region who are facing this situation,” he said.

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Paulina Guzik, international editor of OSV News, contributed to this report.)

By Tom Tracy / Florida Catholic , OSV News

MIAMI (OSV News) — Representatives and clergy of the Archdiocese of Miami recently accompanied a series of ongoing humanitarian relief shipments to Cuba following last year’s Hurricane Melissa.

The new airlifts of foodstuffs and hygiene supplies were approved by the U.S. and Cuban governments this year and amount to some $3 million in aid to mostly eastern Cuban communities impacted by the Category 5 hurricane in 2025.

The hurricane made landfall on Oct. 28 in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm before passing over the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. Dozens were killed, mostly in Jamaica and Haiti.

But Cuba’s weakening economic situation prompted action from a small group of donors through Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

Those local efforts at the end of last year were extended in 2026 through a $3 million governmental partnership with Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Church’s overseas relief and development agency. The partnership marks a return of the Baltimore-based agency to Cuba for the first time in a decade.

The Catholic Church in Cuba, through its regional dioceses, has been entrusted with overseeing the distribution of the aid to ensure that it benefits those most in need in the communist nation, according to Peter Routsis-Arroyo, CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

“Caritas Cuba along with priests, staff and volunteers from the parishes in the four dioceses impacted by Hurricane Melisssa continue to distribute the humanitarian assistance provided by CRS using a needs-based criteria,” Routsis-Arroyo said.

“The newest obstacle is the fuel shortage that will make the distribution more challenging,” he said Feb. 21. “It is also making garbage pickup throughout the region almost nonexistent which could lead to the spread of more diseases.”

In November, Routsis-Arroyo and two other archdiocesan representatives traveled to Cuba to accompany the third of four shipments, which departed from Miami International Airport and arrived at Antonio Maceo International Airport in Santiago, Cuba.

On Jan. 28, Father Jose Espino, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, and Sister Eva Perez-Puelles from the Daughters of Charity in Miami accompanied a new airlift of aid to Santiago, Cuba. Father Elvis Gonzalez, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Miami and Father Esney Munoz Diaz, of the same parish, oversaw an air delivery the following day to the Holguín region.

“They are met by a bishop or a representative from Caritas Cuba, making sure these supplies get into the correct hands,” Routsis-Arroyo said, adding that the Jan. 28 flight included 648 food kits, along with 510 hygiene kits, for example.

“Caritas Cuba needs-based criteria for dispensing the aid, with single mothers, senior citizens and people with disabilities and reduced mobility taking priority,” he added, noting that a hurricane appeal in the Miami Archdiocese last year provided an initial $400,000 in hurricane relief to the island following Hurricane Melissa.

“The difference now is that this new aid is part of the $3 million the U.S. government allowed to be used as part of a pledge to help Cuba,” Routsis-Arroyo said, noting that he met on Jan. 28 with Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski to discuss the operation.

“We (in the Miami Archdiocese) are trying to help and complement those efforts, we will continue our own relationships and efforts with Cuba.”

This is not the first time aid has been sent to Cuba. Archbishop Wenski explained to the Florida Catholic in December that it is “something that we’ve been doing for a long time.” “In the last five years, we’ve probably sent 45 containers to Cuba to help dioceses and religious communities in their work with the poor, especially elderly people,” he said.

Archbishop Wenski also organized a campaign in 1996, when he was the director of Catholic Charities of Miami, to collect food after Hurricane Lili struck Cuba. “We were able to send that food on two plane loads,” he said.

That shipment was made possible thanks to the relationship he had developed with the director of Caritas Cuba.

Santiago in the eastern part of Cuba is where the hurricane had the greatest impact. The humanitarian relief effort in Cuba aims to assist people in the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba and the Guantanamo-Baracoa, Holguín and Bayamo-Manzanillo dioceses.

The U.S. State Department has said the food kits include supplies such as rice, beans, oil and sugar. The assistance will also include water purification tablets and storage containers, as well as household essentials like pots and pans, along with sheets, blankets and solar lanterns.
Last year, the Trump administration moved to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development, placing some of its remaining functions under the purview of the State Department.

Cuts to funding for the government’s now-shuttered humanitarian aid agency in countries all over the globe included funding for some efforts by Catholic and other faith-based humanitarian groups including CRS.

Robyn Fieser, media relations manager for CRS, said in a statement, “Following Hurricane Melissa, we are supporting the delivery of emergency supplies to families in Cuba with funding from the U.S. government, working in coordination with the Catholic Church, a longstanding and trusted partner in reaching communities during times of crisis.”

Archbishop Wenski said this new project with Cuba serves as an opportunity for the U.S. government to rebuild some of its coordination with CRS. “I think (U.S. Secretary of State) Marco Rubio was very wise in rebuilding that relationship,” the archbishop told the Florida Catholic, the archdiocesan news outlet.

“CRS is back helping Cuba and hopefully this opens funds and provides assistance to Cubans, because that is the only thing that is reaching Cubans right now,” the archbishop added.

By Junno Arocho Esteves

(OSV News) — Since 2022, there has been a steady flow of harrowing images and videos of killings, war and destruction from the Holy Land, beginning with the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, followed by Israel’s war on Gaza.

That, coupled with reported attacks on Christians in the West Bank by Jewish settlers, has led the land known as “The Fifth Gospel” to be nearly empty of pilgrims over the last two years.

Although a ceasefire agreement has been in place since October, Israel launched a deadly strike on Gaza Jan. 31 that killed over 30 people, threatening an already shaky detente.

On Feb. 3, only a handful of sick and wounded Palestinians from Gaza were allowed to cross to Egypt after the Rafah border crossing reopened for the movement of people — it was closed in May 2024.

Nevertheless, in early January, Franciscan Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, urged pilgrims to return not only as an opportunity to be where Christ was, but also as a sign of solidarity with Christians in the area whose livelihoods depend on pilgrims.

Meeting with pilgrims from Rome Jan. 7 at the Franciscan headquarters in Jerusalem, Father Ielpo said the presence of Christians from around the world visiting the Holy Land “generates hope and strengthens the reason for coming here — not to see a museum, but to encounter a living Church.”

Father Ielpo said he is often asked by many how “to help this land and these peoples.”

The most helpful thing, he said, according to Vatican News, was to “return as pilgrims to this land.”

Pilgrimages are “one of the principal sources of economic support, primarily — but not only — for the local Christian community,” he added.

For Michael Kelly, director of public affairs for Aid to the Church in Need Ireland, pilgrims should consider Father Ielpo’s appeal because he, like many men and women religious in the Holy Land, understands “the reality on the ground, and they would not invite pilgrims there if the situation was unsafe.”

While the ceasefire in Gaza is fragile, “around Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee the situation is safe,” Kelly said in a Jan. 28 email to OSV News.

Kelly, who said he has led dozens of group pilgrimages to the Holy Land over the past 20 years, urged pilgrims on the fence about visiting to “leave the hesitation at the door, because it is not outsiders telling people to come, it is the people who live the reality every single day who are asking pilgrims to come.”

“Even before the current war, people had a perception that the Holy Land is unsafe,” he said. “I used to say to people, take the words of Jesus to heart ‘come and see’ — and I can tell you honestly, of the 6,000 or so pilgrims I have brought to the Holy Land, not one said they were concerned or worried once they were there.”

With religious tourism slowing to a trickle, he lamented, Christians in Bethlehem and Jerusalem are reaching a breaking point, both economically and mentally.

“They are suffering isolation and hardship because pilgrims have not come in over two years,” he told OSV News. “They want people to come back, but not just for their material benefit (which is important) but because they want to share their lives of faith with Christians from all over the world.”

“Many of the workers in the hotels and restaurants are Christians, and by patronising these businesses we are helping Christians to survive,” he added.

According to a report by the U.S. State Department, Christian clergy and pilgrims are facing increased harassment, including incidents of spitting and verbal assault by ultra-Orthodox extremists.

Asked how one reconciles the spiritual call to return with the physical reality of rising hostility on the streets, Kelly acknowledged that authorities in Jerusalem must do more to ensure that pilgrims “do not have negative experiences.”

“Jerusalem is a holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. All of these believers must be allowed to be free to exercise their faith in the city,” he said, noting that rabbis in Jerusalem denounced Jewish extremists for their harassment, which is “not in keeping with authentic Judaism.”

“I have to say, any time I have witnessed an incident and I have reported it to the Israeli police, they took action immediately,” he said. “This hostility on the streets comes from a very small but vocal faction, and it is necessary for Israeli leaders and politicians to denounce it.”

Kelly also told OSV News that when such incidents occur on pilgrimages he has led, he tells pilgrims, “This is how it was. The Lord did not have a sanitized walk to Calvary; try to enter more deeply into his passion with this very small experience of adversity.'”

“The streets of Jerusalem were hostile on that first Good Friday, when the Lord carried his cross,” he said. “Who are we to expect anything less?”

Nevertheless, the images of war and death remain the biggest hurdle in convincing pilgrims to return.

“People are rightly greatly troubled by the huge loss of life and the intensity of the violence,” Kelly said. While noting that major pilgrimage stops, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum and the Jordan River are safe, he urged pilgrims to overcome their fear by visiting the Holy Land, deepening their faith, and supporting the local Christian community.

“Many Christians are leaving — they see little hope,” he said. “They have not seen Christians from other parts of the world in over two years, (and) they begin to think that they are forgotten about.”

“We have to help Catholics around the world understand that the importance of the Holy Land lies not just in the ancient sites there, but in the life of the local Christians descended from the first followers of Jesus,” Kelly told OSV News.

“My hope is that every Catholic parish in the world will give serious consideration to organizing a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, not only to see the holy sites associated with Jesus, but to be with the local Christian community — to show them that they are really part of the body of Christ, and we will support them,” he said.

(Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.)