WORK AND HUMAN DIGNITY
A young farmer holding a hoe in a field of cassava plants. In Africa, cassava is the second most important staple food after maize, providing the primary energy source for approximately 40% of the population. Due to high levels of unemployment, small- scale farming provides a dignified way of self-sustenance.
RADAR
Pope Leo XIV’s First Apostolic Journey to Africa
In a ten-day visit, the Pope will travel to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.
BY PAOLO AFFATATO
AFTER THE significant journey to Türkiye and Lebanon at the end of 2025 and after the announcement of the upcoming pastoral visits in Italy that will take him as far as the Lampedusa Island, Pope Leo XIV is resuming his pilgrimages throughout the world.
In his first official visit to the continent from 13 to 23 April, the pontiff will begin from Algeria where, on the footsteps of Saint Augustine, he will visit Algiers and Annaba, once called Hippo Regius, the city where the great theologian and pastor worked and died.
“He comes to remind us of the blessing of having a common older brother born in this land in the person of Saint Augustine, whose figure can guide our common journey,” the four bishops of Algeria write in their statement.
“He comes,” they add, “as an apostle of peace,” in a country where the Christian presence is down to a few thousand people in the midst of a population of approximately 48 million Muslims.
Visiting Cameroon from 15 to 18 April, Pope Leo XIV will stop over in Yaoundé, Bamenda and Douala. He will go to the Anglophone region in the north of Cameroon, where for ten years a civil war has been underway, involving the regular armed forces and the separatists.
In Angola from 18 to 21 April, he will visit Luanda, Muxima and Saurimo. In the final stage of this African Journey, from 21 to 23 April, the pontiff will be in Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish-speaking African country, where he will stop over in Malabo, Mongomo and Bata.
The length of this Papal Visit approaches that of Pope Saint John Paul II in 1985, when he visited seven countries in 11 days.
Source: vaticannews.va
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