For Mauro Rui Callado Cortêz, a Catholic lay teacher in Angola, the “unique opportunity” to see Pope Leo XIV in person was unmissable, even though serious illness should have confined him to bed.
“My visual contact with the Holy Father was a unique moment; it transmitted such a great physical and spiritual lightness that the feeling of satisfaction doesn’t end,” Cortêz told CNN about his experience of seeing the papal car pass by outside Luanda International Airport, shortly after Leo’s arrival on Saturday.
Angola was the third stop on an 11-day tour of four African nations that has prompted wide excitement among the faithful on a continent, which is home to around 20 percent of the world’s Catholics – but also disquiet in some quarters.
Critics have voiced concern that Leo’s decision to visit Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, both governed by long-serving leaders who maintain tight control over the Central African nations, has given tacit approval to authoritarian regimes.
The trip has been further complicated by a diplomatic dispute with the Trump administration regarding the pope’s stance on the Middle Eastern conflict.
The Pope has sought to downplay the perceived conflict, emphasizing that his trip to Africa focuses on peacebuilding and that he’s not seeking to “debate” the president.
Leo has taken a strong stance against corruption and the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources by foreign powers in his public addresses. He’s also advocated for peace and reconciliation in areas affected by conflict.
But the optics of the tour, which coincides with the first anniversary of the death of Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor and a champion of the poor, remain troubling for many.
While in Africa, the pope has been greeted by sizeable crowds. In Bamenda, the center of a conflict between English-speaking separatists and the Francophone government in Cameroon, there was a festive atmosphere as Leo took part in a peace meeting and celebrated a Mass.
“We want peace, that is all we want,” said Pamela Nze ahead of the Mass. Earlier, Jamconfidence Masha waved a peace plant as she waited for the pope to arrive. She works as a clothes maker in Bamenda – her shop was destroyed during the conflict. She said the pope was bringing a message of “love, hope and unity.”
On Tuesday, on the flight from Angola to Equatorial Guinea, Leo paid tribute to Pope Francis, on the one-year anniversary of his predecessor’s death. He described Francis’s life as a “great gift” to the church and the world, emphasizing the late pope’s “closeness to the poorest, to the least (among us), to the sick, to children, to the elderly.”
A complicated tour
The trip, which concludes this week in Equatorial Guinea, began with a historic visit to Algeria on April 13, where Leo became the first pope to visit the predominantly Muslim nation. From there, he traveled to Cameroon, where he led a large Mass in Douala that drew over 100,000 attendees.
On Sunday in Angola, the pope addressed an audience of approximately 130,000 at two events, urging the nation to move beyond its longstanding divisions following a nearly three-decade war that ended in 2002.
Forty-four-year-old catechist Cortêz, who witnessed the visits of Pope John Paul II to his hometown, Huambo, in 1992 and Pope Benedict XVI to Luanda, the Angolan capital, in 2009, said he viewed Leo’s visit as “a great 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 heritage tracing back to the European colonial era.
A few days earlier, on April 15, Leo arrived in Cameroon at a politically significant moment. The country’s 93-year-old President Paul Biya had just signed a decree reinstating the position of vice president for the first time in his 43-year rule. This legislation, which received parliamentary approval about 10 days before the pope’s visit, allows the vice president to automatically assume the presidency if Biya were to die or become unable to govern.
Father Ludovic Lado, a priest from Cameroon, expressed apprehension — shared by opposition groups — that this could pave the way for dynastic succession. In November, he sent a letter to the pope, asking him to rethink his planned visit to the country, which the Holy See acknowledged, according to a letter Lado posted on Facebook, saying it was following the country’s situation “with keen attention.”
Biya won his eighth presidential term in October, allowing him potentially to remain in power until he’s nearly 100 years old. His re-election sparked widespread protests, during which Cameroonian security forces reportedly killed at least 48 people. Opponents of the regime claim that the election was fraudulent. Cameroon’s Constitutional Council dismissed petitions alleging electoral fraud, citing a lack of evidence.
“The Central African region the pope is visiting includes some of the most entrenched and authoritarian political systems, often led by long-serving presidents,” Lado told CNN. “Cameroon is a clear illustration of this reality, with a troubling record in matters of governance and human rights.”
Leo arrived in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, a former Spanish colony and one of the world’s least-visited nations, where 74% of the population of nearly 2 million are Catholics.
Human rights lawyer Tutu Alicante, who leads a nonprofit organization promoting human rights and the fight against corruption in the small, authoritarian nation, expressed his opposition to the pontiff’s visit in an interview with CNN, saying he feared it lent legitimacy to its leaders.
The nation’s 83-year-old president, Teodoro Obiang, has held power for over four decades. Ahead of the pope’s arrival, Obiang’s son Teodoro, who serves as the vice president, denied media reports alleging that the government had cut civil servants’ salaries to fund preparations for the trip, dismissing the claim as “false information.”
Despite its oil wealth, nearly half of Equatorial Guinea’s population lives in poverty.
The government has also been mired in numerous corruption scandals.
In 2021, the president’s son Teodoro was sanctioned in the United Kingdom for diverting millions of dollars, which officials claimed were used to purchase luxury mansions, private jets, and a $275,000 glove once worn by Michael Jackson.
The previous year, he was tried in absentia in France, receiving a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of over $30 million for embezzlement. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
“There are many other African countries that he (Leo) could go to, but he is choosing to meet with two of the longest serving heads of state in the world,” Alicante said. “The pope is the biggest diplomatic figure in the world. 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 or Cameroon. However, his visit to these countries may have unintended consequences, according to Alicante, who expressed concern that the trip could “legitimize an authoritarian kleptocracy.”
Both leaders have previously dismissed allegations of corruption and human rights violations.
‘Bitter taste’
Throughout his tour, Leo has spoken out against corruption.
At the Presidential Palace in Yaoundé, in front of Biya, he stressed that “In order for peace and justice to prevail, the chains of corruption— which disfigure authority and strip it of its credibility — must be broken.”
He also addressed the ongoing conflict in Cameroon between the Francophone government and English-speaking separatists, which has claimed thousands of lives over the past decade.
Jesuit priest Lado remarked that although the pope’s message to Cameroonian authorities “was encouraging,” it was nonetheless ignored. “We are dealing with a particularly shrewd regime,” he stated.
Politician and social activist Kah Walla echoed the mixed feelings surrounding the pope’s visit to Cameroon.
“There are over 8 million Catholics in Cameroon who were ecstatic and thrilled to see their Holy Father,” she told CNN.
“But there is definitely a bitter taste for some of us when we think about how the regime will use this visit to further legitimize itself and how all of the power and influence that the Pope carries might not truly improve the situation of Cameroonians who live under a very unjust system.”
Defenders point to pope’s focus on dialogue
Amid the scrutiny of Leo’s inclusion of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, other commenters have come to his defense.
Father Beltus Asanji, a 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 travels was to connect with local churches and share a message of peace, reconciliation and the dignity of humanity.
He explained that “meetings with civil authorities are routine on apostolic journeys,” and noted that the pope’s meeting with Biya aligns with the Vatican’s principle of engaging in dialogue without political bias.
“The Holy See has repeatedly stated that such encounters do not imply moral judgment on a leader’s tenure or policies,” Asanji said.
Cameroonian political analyst Collins Molua Ikome highlighted that the pope is primarily a religious authority.
“If political institutions such as the United Nations, European Union and African Union, as well as numerous governments, recognize the Biya government, it is naive for people to think that 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 significant infrastructure projects in Bamenda, including renovating its airport, in preparation for the visit, which could be positive for local residents.
“One of the main catalysts for the Anglophone crisis is the perceived underdevelopment of the Anglophone regions,” Ikome added.
However, Walla, leader of the opposition Cameroon People’s Party, cautioned that the scars from the regime’s crackdown on election-related protest are still fresh, and argued that a high-profile visit of this kind could send misleading signals.
“Right now, there are banners with pictures of Pope Leo and Paul Biya all over the major cities of Cameroon. The regime is spinning this as to say that after the horrible election, marked by deaths and arrests, we are legitimate, we are being visited by the pope,” she said.
She added, “Every visit of a dignitary is turned into a type of PR campaign for the regime, and this pope’s visit is no different.”
CNN’s Christopher Lamb contributed to this report.
