Pope Leo XIV finished his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa with a final Mass in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, despite a heavy rainstorm. The trip was notable for the Pope's interactions with President Donald Trump.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ deputy chief of staff retiresTIMELINE: Reported house, apartment explosions across San Antonio area since 2020Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea , Thursday, April 23, 2026, on the last day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa .
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Thursday, April 23, 2026, on the last day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Thursday, April 23, 2026, on the last day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa.
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Thursday, April 23, 2026, on the last day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Thursday, April 23, 2026, on the last day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa.
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate the Holy mass at the Malabo stadium, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Thursday, April 23, 2026, on the last day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. wrapped up his African odyssey on Thursday with a final Mass in Equatorial Guinea, bringing to an end one of the newsiest papal trips in the history of popes on the road, thanks to his extraordinary back-and-forth with President Donald Trump.
A powerful rainstorm drenched the Malabo sports stadium and the estimated 30,000 people who gathered before dawn for Leo’s farewell liturgy. But the deluge let up before Leo arrived in his covered popemobile for a romp through the deafening crowd. Over that time, Leo covered more than 17,700 kilometers on 18 flights, including three on Wednesday alone that saw him crisscross Equatorial Guinea from the west coast to the far east border with Gabon and back again.
Nearly everywhere Leo went, history’s first U.S. pope received a raucous welcome, especially in the farther away places that had never had a pope visit. Popes have been traveling the world since Pope Paul VI made the first modern foreign visit in 1964 to Jordan and Israel.
But it was St. John Paul II who revolutionized the papacy with his globe-trotting papacy that took him on 104 foreign trips over a quarter century, many with the multination itinerary on which Leo’s trip seemed modeled. At Leo’s final Mass on Thursday, Michaela Mecha and her sister, Encarnacion, arrived at the Malabo stadium in the downpour at 4 a.m. They were dressed from head to toe in pope-themed attire, complete with yellow umbrellas decorated with Leo’s face.
“We feel very special and blessed that the pope has chosen our country,” said Michaela, who works as a nurse and brought her two young daughters with her. “This visit is bringing young people closer to God. ” In his homily, Leo referred to the April 17 death of the Rev. Fr.
Fortunato Nsue Esono Ayíambeng, a member of the committee that organized the trip and the vicar general of Malabo.
“May full light be shed on the circumstances of his death,” Leo said, in apparent reference to rumors that foul play might have been involved. Few people could have expected that Leo’s trip, his first to Africa as pope, would have played out against Trump’s unprecedented attacks over the Iran war.
But the timing was such that Leo was already in the media crosshairs when it began, andOn Day 1, Leo insisted he was just preaching the Gospel of peace and wasn’t afraid of the Trump administration after Trump accused him of being soft on crime and cozy with the left. As the attacks continued and Vice President JD Vance joined the fray, telling Leo he shouldand the pope could concentrate on his Africa agenda.
It was focused on rallying Catholics with a message of hope while also blasting what he called the “colonization” of the continent's natural resources by foreign interests. The trip had its high-emotion moments, such as when Leo broke away from a choreographed visit to a psychiatric hospital in Sampaka, Equatorial Guinea, to greet the patients, one by one, and pose for selfies.
The site of a onetime hub of the African slave trade is now Angola's most popular pilgrimage site after a reported vision of the Virgin Mary around 1833.in Bab El Oued, Algeria, and stopped at a table of jewelry made by local women. He picked out a necklace featuring a tree of life design and assured the superior, “It’s not for me, it’s for my niece.
” In Bamenda, Cameroon, he traveled to the epicenter of a nearly decade-long separatist conflict and begged for peace while lashing out at thewho were ravaging the Earth. It was that day’s news headlines that prompted Leo to come to the back of the plane a few days later and insist he wasn’t talking about Trump.. All the inmates, their heads shaved, were dressed in new neon orange or beige uniforms and new Croc-like rubber shoes.
The facility had been recently painted salmon pink with fresh saplings planted around the perimeter. The inmates stood silently in seemingly assigned spots in the open courtyard waiting for Leo. When he arrived, they sang for him a song about their sins. As Leo told them God loves them and spoke of their dignity, they danced for him and waved their Holy See flags in choreographed unison, as the heavens opened and a downpour drenched them.
As soon as Leo left, with the country’s justice minister still in the courtyard, the inmates broke away from their places into a raucous, dancing chant of “Libertad! Libertad! Libertad! ” Leo also offered best wishes to the handful of reporters who celebrated birthdays over the course of the trip, which were marked each time with the ITA Airways flight crew passing around birthday cake.a chance to ask questions of interest back home. One nugget that certainly gave joy to Angolans was Leo’s revelation that Angola might have its first cardinal, not in the near future but “a bit further on.
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Pope Leo XIV concludes Africa visit with Mass in Equatorial GuineaPope Leo XIV is wrapping up his African odyssey with a final Mass in Equatorial Guinea. A powerful rainstorm drenched the Malabo sports stadium and the estimated 30,000 people who gathered before dawn for Leo’s farewell liturgy. But the deluge let up before Leo arrived in his covered popemobile for a romp through the deafening crowd.
Read more »