Inés San Martin, OSV News
While Pope Leo XIV responded to what he has described as an inaccurate narrative surrounding his first trip to Africa, missionaries working across the continent say the visit reflects something far more fundamental than a political debate.
«There has been a certain narrative that has not been entirely accurate in all its aspects,» the Pontiff told reporters April 18 while traveling between Cameroon and Angola, noting that much of the coverage had become «commentary on commentary.».
However, on the ground, those who live the daily reality of the Church in Africa describe a visit centered on themes they know well: fraternity, peace, healing and hope. And all rooted in Christ.
A long-standing desire
In many ways, the trip also represents the fulfillment of a long-held personal desire. Days after his election in May 2025, Leo XIV had already signaled his intention to travel to Africa, beginning with Algeria, the land of St. Augustine of Hippo, whose thought and spirituality had marked his own vocation as an Augustinian.
It is also a continent he knows firsthand. Even as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, the future Pope made repeated trips to Africa, especially Nigeria, maintaining close ties with missionary communities and developing a pastoral vision marked by those encounters.
That background helps explain why, as he told reporters during the flight, he sees the trip in simple terms: «I come primarily to Africa as a pastor...to be with, celebrate, encourage and accompany all the Catholics in Africa.».
Algeria
In Algeria, where Christians constitute a tiny minority in a predominantly Muslim country, Spanish missionary Mercè Gassiot affirmed that this presence - discreet, humble and relational - defines the mission of the Church.
«Our Church is poor, very small, but full of diversity,» said Gassiot, who has lived in the country since 1969. «Fraternity is built day by day, living together, working together, sharing both the difficulties and the joys of daily life.».
For her, the Pope's emphasis on dialogue and coexistence reflects what Catholics in Algeria already seek to live.
Speaking at the Great Mosque of Algiers, Pope Leo XIV underscored that vision, insisting that «to seek God is also to recognize the image of God in every creature,» and that this leads to learning «to live together with respect for the dignity of every human person.».
He returned to the figure of St. Augustine as a bridge between past and present, telling journalists as he left the country that the saint's invitation to seek God and truth is something very necessary for everyone today.
With Muslims
That same spirit was seen in Annaba, where Sister Carmen Maria de Justin of the Little Sisters of the Poor received the Pope in a home for the elderly, where almost all the residents are Muslims.
«It was wonderful, he was thrilled to see them,» she said, describing how the pope greeted the residents during his visit. For the sisters, who have long served in a largely Muslim environment, the visit was both a confirmation and an encouragement. «It has been a great reward for our work ... it has given us strength to continue,» she told OSV News.
The meeting also reflected the broader response of the local population. «The house was full of Muslims,» he said, noting that neighbors helped prepare the place to receive the pope.
The home even has a small mosque for the residents, «so they can pray as we do in our chapel,» he said, a daily expression of the conviviality that the Pope emphasized throughout the visit.
«I think that the Lord, from heaven, seeing a house like this, where one seeks to live together in fraternity, may think: ’Well, there is hope!»« the Pope said in his brief remarks at the »Ma Maison" home, where he spent more time greeting personally than speaking.
«God's heart is torn by wars, violence, injustices and lies. But the heart of our Father is not with the wicked, with the overbearing, with the arrogant; the heart of God is with the little ones, with the humble,» the Pope said.
Friendship
For missionaries like Gassiot and Sister Carmen Maria, that message of evangelization through friendship resonates deeply in a context where daily life takes place almost entirely in a Muslim environment. And it is a life of faith grounded in the witness of the martyrs, whom the Pope also honored during his visit.
At the Welcome and Friendship Center run by the Augustinian Missionary Sisters in the Bab El Oued neighborhood of Algiers, the Pope met with nuns and learned about their work, which includes educational support, language classes and programs for women.
Martyrs
Reflecting on the legacy of Sisters Caridad Álvarez Martín and Esther Paniagua Alonso - assassinated on October 23, 1994, on World Mission Sunday, as they were on their way to Mass - Pope Leo XIV framed their deaths within a broader call to witness.
«Perhaps what you are doing here goes much more to the heart of what Augustinian life - consecrated life in the Church - should be in a world where martyrdom is really necessary, but martyrdom in the sense of the word: witness,» he said.
The two sisters are among the 19 Algerian martyrs beatified in 2018, recognized for standing with the Algerian people despite increased violence during the civil war that began in 1992.
That decision to stay was not automatic. «The fundamental question was: what am I personally going to do, stay or leave temporarily?» recalled Sister Maria Jesus Rodriguez, then Provincial Superior of the Augustinian Missionary Sisters, who was in Algeria at the time.
As threats against foreigners and Christians increased, the country's bishops asked the religious to freely discern their path. «Both options were legitimate and very good,» Sister Rodriguez said, noting the «triple» risk they faced: «for being foreigners, for being Christians and simply for being there.».
Cameroon
In Cameroon, the Pope's message took on a more urgent tone. In Bamenda, a region marked by a separatist conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and disrupted daily life for years, Sister Maria Jose de la Plata said the Pope's decision to go was already significant.
«It's a sign of closeness - he's with the people,» he said. «He is willing to take the risk to tell a people who have suffered for years that they are not forgotten.».
He described a reality in which insecurity has become routine. «We have become accustomed to ‘ghost Mondays’, no market, no school, no transportation,» he said, referring to the weekly closures imposed in the midst of the conflict.
However, even in this context, the mission continues. «Every day that we open the school or the center, despite the risks, we offer hope and the presence of God in this corner of the world.».
Addressing the community, the Pope acknowledged the suffering while highlighting its resilience, calling the region a «bloody but fertile land.» «We must not invent peace,» he said during the peace meeting on April 16. «We have to welcome it, assuming our neighbor as our brother and sister.».
For Sister de la Plata, the visit in itself conveys a message: that the conflict has not been ignored and that the Church is still present.
Angola
In Angola, missionaries say the Pope's focus on healing and justice speaks directly to the country's past and present. After a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002, many wounds remain: economic inequality, fragile infrastructure and communities still recovering from decades of violence.
Sister María José Valero, of the Daughters of Charity, described a mission that encompasses schools, health centers, prison ministry and pastoral accompaniment. «Our mission here includes education, medical care and accompanying people in all aspects of life,» she said, noting the multiple needs of the population.
Leo XIV reflected that reality in his address to civil authorities in Luanda on April 18, warning against economic systems that reduce people to commodities and calling for a development model based on human dignity. «It is necessary to break this cycle of interests that reduces reality, and even life itself, to mere commodities,» he said.
At the Marian shrine of Mama Muxima - a place of deep spiritual significance, but also linked to the history of the transatlantic slave trade - the Pope connected faith with concrete responsibility.
«Praying the Rosary commits us to love every person ... and to dedicate ourselves to the good of others, especially the poorest,» he said. For missionaries, that connection between prayer and action reflects the daily work of the Church.
Equatorial Guinea
In Equatorial Guinea, although the reception of those who were able to attend was extremely enthusiastic, in remote areas far from the capital many Catholics were unable to participate in the events or even follow them through the local media.
Five decades of authoritarian rule by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who took power in 1979, have left the country with limited infrastructure, including access to television or broadcasting services.
Sister Concepción González, who works in a rural community, described the visit as something experienced «from a distance - a physical distance, and also of other kinds.
«A lot of people here won't even be able to see it,» he said. However, the need for hope is no less. «If hope is the last thing to be lost, then maybe that's where it's needed most: in health care, where many are too late,» he said. «Children are happy, but sometimes you can see in their eyes a shadow, something that speaks of a different and better life.».
Still, he hopes the pope will take that reality with him beyond the brief days of the visit. «I would ask him to take a piece of what he sees here ... and present it to the Lord,» he said.
The Pope affirmed in Mongomo, in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, that the motto chosen for his visit: «Christ, Light of Equatorial Guinea, towards a future of hope», points to «perhaps... the greatest hunger» in the country.
«There is hunger for the future, but for a future inhabited by hope, that can generate a new justice, that can bear fruits of peace and fraternity».
For missionaries living in Africa, the Pope's visit did not introduce a new agenda, but rather reaffirmed that their pastor is with them, understands their struggles and strengthens their hopes.
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