Abuja —
Mauro Rui Calado Cortés, a Catholic lay teacher in Angola, was supposed to be bedridden due to a serious illness, but the “unique opportunity” to meet Pope Leo XIV in person was one he couldn’t pass up.
“Visual contact with the Pope was a unique moment. It conveyed such a physical and spiritual lightness that the feeling of satisfaction never ends,” Cortés told CNN about the experience of watching the Pope’s car pass outside Luanda International Airport shortly after Leo arrived on Saturday.
Angola, the third stop on an 11-day tour of four African countries, has sparked widespread excitement among believers on the continent, home to about 20% of the world’s Catholics, but also anxiety in some quarters.
Critics have raised concerns that Mr. Leo’s decision to visit Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, which are ruled by longtime leaders who maintain tight control over the Central African nation, amounts to tacit approval of dictatorships.
The trip was further complicated by a diplomatic spat with the Trump administration over the pope’s stance on the Middle East conflict.
The Pope has sought to downplay the perceived conflict, stressing that his Africa trip will focus on peacebuilding and will not “debate” the president.
In his street speeches, Mr. Leo has taken a strong stance against corruption and the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources by foreign powers. He also advocates peace and reconciliation in conflict-affected areas.
But the prospect of the tour, which coincides with the first anniversary of the death of Leo’s predecessor and champion of the poor, Pope Francis, remains troubling to many.
During his stay in Africa, the Pope was welcomed by large crowds. Bamenda, the epicenter of conflict between English-speaking separatists and Cameroon’s Francophone government, was in a festive mood as Leo attended a peace conference and celebrated mass.
“We want peace. That’s all we want,” Pamela Nze said before the mass. Prior to this, Jam Confidence Masha waved a peace plant as she waited for the Pope’s arrival. She works as a clothing manufacturer in Bamenda, but her shop was destroyed during the conflict. She said the pope conveys a message of “love, hope and unity.”
On Tuesday, Leo paid tribute to Pope Francis on the first anniversary of his predecessor’s death on a flight from Angola to Equatorial Guinea. The Pope described Francis’ life as a “great gift” to the Church and the world, stressing the late pontiff’s “intimacy towards the poorest, the least[among us]the sick, children and the elderly.”
The trip, which ends this week in Equatorial Guinea, began with a historic visit to Algeria on April 13, making Leo the first pope to visit a majority-Muslim country. From there he traveled to Cameroon and led a massive Mass in Douala that attracted more than 100,000 participants.
On Sunday in Angola, the pope addressed an audience of about 130,000 people at two events, appealing to the people to move beyond longstanding divisions after nearly 30 years of war that ended in 2002.
Catechist Cortés, 44, who witnessed Pope John Paul II visit his hometown of Huambo in 1992 and Pope Benedict XVI to Angola’s capital Luanda in 2009, said he considered Leo’s visit a “huge blessing” for the southern African country where Catholics are the largest religious group.
Angola, where Portuguese is spoken, is one of several African countries with a Catholic tradition dating back to European colonial times.
A few days earlier, on April 15, Leo arrived in Cameroon at a politically important moment. The country’s 93-year-old president, Paul Biya, had just signed a decree restoring the vice-presidential position for the first time in his 43-year rule. The bill, which was approved by parliament about 10 days before the papal visit, would allow the vice president to automatically become president if Mr. Biya dies or becomes unable to govern.
Father Ludovic Lado, a priest from Cameroon, said opponents similarly expressed concerns that this could pave the way for dynastic succession. In a letter posted on Facebook by Rado, he wrote to the pope in November asking him to reconsider his planned visit to the country, which the Holy See acknowledged, saying it was monitoring the situation in the country “with great care.”
Biya won an eighth term as president in October and could remain in power until he is nearly 100 years old. His re-election sparked widespread protests, during which Cameroonian security forces reportedly killed at least 48 people. Opponents of the government claim the election was fraudulent. Cameroon’s Constitutional Council rejected a petition alleging election fraud due to lack of evidence.
“The Central African region that the pope is visiting has some of the most entrenched and authoritarian political regimes, often led by long-serving presidents,” Lado told CNN. “Cameroon is a clear example of this reality, with a worrying history regarding governance and human rights.”
Leo arrived in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday. Equatorial Guinea is a former Spanish colony with a population of approximately 2 million people, 74% of whom are Catholic, and one of the least visited countries in the world.
Tutu Alicante, a human rights lawyer who heads a nonprofit group that promotes human rights and the fight against corruption in the small, authoritarian country, expressed opposition to the papal visit in an interview with CNN, saying he was concerned it would lend legitimacy to its leaders.
The country’s 83-year-old President Teodoro Obiang has been in power for more than 40 years. Ahead of the pope’s arrival, Obiang’s son Teodoro, who serves as vice president, denied media reports that the government had cut civil servant salaries to prepare for the papal visit, dismissing the claims as “misinformation”.
Despite being rich in oil, almost half of Equatorial Guinea’s population lives in poverty.
The government has also been mired in numerous corruption scandals.
In 2021, the British president’s son Teodoro was sanctioned for misappropriating millions of dollars, which authorities said were used to buy luxury mansions, a private jet and a $275,000 glove once worn by Michael Jackson.
The previous year, he was tried in absentia in France and sentenced to three years’ probation and a fine of more than $30 million for embezzlement. He has consistently denied wrongdoing.
“There are many other African countries he (Leo) could have visited, but he chose to meet the two longest-serving heads of state in the world,” Alicante said. “The Pope is the world’s greatest diplomatic figure. His presence in any country speaks volumes about what the Catholic Church believes.”
Leo is not the first pope to be welcomed by the current leaders of Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. However, Alicante said the trip to these countries could have unintended consequences and expressed concern that the trip could “legitimize authoritarian kleptocracy.”
Both leaders have previously denied allegations of corruption and human rights abuses.
Leo has been speaking out against corruption through his tours.
“For peace and justice to prevail, we must break the chain of corruption that undermines authority and deprives it of its credibility,” he said in front of Biya, the presidential palace in Yaounde.
He also referred to Cameroon’s ongoing conflict between the French-speaking government and Anglophone separatists, which has claimed thousands of lives over the past decade.
Jesuit Bishop Rado said the pope’s message to Cameroonian authorities was “encouraging” but ignored. “We are dealing with a particularly astute administration,” he said.
Politician and social activist Ka Wala echoed the mixed feelings surrounding the Pope’s visit to Cameroon.
“There are over 8 million Catholics in Cameroon and they were thrilled and excited to meet the Pope,” she told CNN.
“But some of us will certainly be bitter about how the regime will use this visit to further its own legitimacy, and how all the power and influence the pope has may not truly improve the situation of Cameroonians living under a deeply unjust system.”
Other commentators have come to Leo’s defense amid scrutiny over his inclusion of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
Father Bertus Assange, communications coordinator for the Catholic Archdiocese of Bamenda, the epicenter of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, told CNN that the purpose of the pope’s trip was to connect with the local church and share a message of peace, reconciliation and human dignity.
“Meetings with civilian authorities are a regular part of an apostolic journey,” he said, noting that the meeting between the pope and Villa was in line with the Vatican’s principle of dialogue without political bias.
“The Holy See has repeatedly stated that such encounters do not imply a moral judgment on a leader’s tenure or policies,” Assange said.
Cameroonian political analyst Collins Morua Ikome stressed that the pope is primarily a religious authority.
“People are naive to think that if political institutions such as the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, and many governments recognize the Biya regime, then a religious and moral authority like the Pope can change that reality,” he said.
Ikome viewed the Pope’s visit as symbolic, noting that Biya had invested in important infrastructure projects in Bamenda in preparation for the visit, including the airport renovation, which could be a boon for local residents.
“One of the main drivers of the Anglophone crisis is the perceived underdevelopment of the English-speaking regions,” Icome added.
But Wala, head of the opposition Cameroon People’s Party, warned that the scars of the regime’s crackdown on election-related protests were still fresh and argued that this type of high-profile visit could send misleading signals.
“There are now banners with pictures of Pope Leo and Paul Biya all over Cameroon’s main cities. The regime is claiming that after a horrific election that resulted in deaths and arrests, we are legitimate and are receiving a papal visit,” she said.
He added, “Every visit by a high-level official has become a kind of PR campaign for the government, and this visit by the Pope is no exception.”
CNN’s Christopher Lamb contributed to this report.
