Justin McLellan

NCR's Vatican correspondent Justin McLellan stuck to pen and paper to record his impressions of traveling through North and Central Africa with Pope Leo XIV. 

Leo expressed his support for Pope Francis' 2018 decision to change authoritative church teaching to say that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." 

"I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity, and that we should look for ways to build our unity on Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches," Pope Leo XIV told journalists on the flight back to Rome from Equatorial Guinea.

"As a pastor, I cannot be in favor of war," Pope Leo XIV said about the war in Iran during his airborne press conference upon his return trip to Rome.

Occult practices are common in Angola's far-flung villages and throughout rural sub-Saharan Africa and weigh heavily in the everyday lives of many Africans throughout most of the continent, presenting a significant obstacle to church outreach in the region.

His pivot from theological reflection to a moral diagnosis of concrete political realities is emblematic of the bridge he has sought to build between Catholic teaching and lived experience. 

En route to Equatorial Guinea from Angola to inaugurate the final leg of his four-nation tour through Africa, Pope Leo XIV praised the example of his predecessor whom he remembered for "truly living out closeness to the most poor." 

Since his election last May, Pope Leo XIV has hammered home the theme of unity. But nowhere has that message taken on sharper contours than in Angola, where the long shadow of civil war and stark inequality continues to fracture the nation.

"Leo has started to shed the soft-spoken reputation, raising his voice with a newfound fervor to decry the corruption and violence plaguing much of the African continent in messages that have rippled worldwide," writes NCR's Justin McLellan.

"I primarily come to Africa as pastor, as head of the Catholic Church to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany, all of the Catholics throughout Africa," the pontiff said.

In Africa, Leo has shared a stage with authoritarian leaders and, at their own invitation, admonished aspects of their governance. It is precisely because the pope is not a politician that he can operate in such a way.

The pope celebrated his first large Mass in Africa, calling out those who "lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it."

 "It is a good fortune to be a small church in service of the kingdom of God," said Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco.

The vice president responded to a post on the pope’s X account in which he wrote that God is "never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

In his homily in Annaba, Algeria, Leo held out the saint as a model for renewal in the church and the world and said the doctor of the church is revered "for his conversion even more than for his wisdom."

Arriving in Algeria, Pope Leo XIV stepped into uncharted territory for a pope, becoming the first leader of the Catholic Church to visit Algeria and bringing with him a message of reconciliation, justice and unity.

Pope Leo XIV told reporters en route to Algeria that he has "no fear of the Trump administration," hours after President Donald Trump lodged a vicious attack on the pontiff via social media.

Pontiff tells world leaders: "Stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned and deadly actions are decided!" 

Of the four nations Pope Leo XIV will visit during his trip to Africa, Cameroon and Angola have been particularly impacted by the cuts to USAID operations which began at the start of President Trump's second term.

"[St.] Augustine was a bridge-builder and Leo sees himself also as a bridge-builder, so going back to Hippo is really him enacting what is important to him in a symbolic gesture," said Augustinian Fr. Kevin De Prinzio.