Pope starts Africa tour in Algeria

Pope Leo XIV called for peace and the end of “neocolonial tendencies” in world affairs on Monday during the first papal visit to Algeria, all while facing an extraordinary broadside by President Donald Trump over his criticism of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Leo’s arrival in Algiers marks the start of an 11-day tour of four African nations — Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea — that will bring the first US-born pope deep into the growing heart of the Catholic Church.
Leo is in Algeria to promote Christian-Muslim coexistence in the majority Muslim nation at a time of global conflict, and to honor the locally born inspiration of his religious spirituality, St Augustine.
The trip began, however, against the backdrop of a growing feud between the Leo and Trump over the Iran war.
Trump overnight said he didn’t think Leo was doing a good job as pope and suggested he should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”
Leo responded by saying his appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel, and that he didn’t fear the Trump administration.
In his first remarks in Algiers, Leo tied his current appeal for peace to the country’s struggle for independence from France, obtained in 1962. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the revolution during which French forces tortured detainees, disappeared suspects and devastated villages as part of a strategy to maintain a grip on power.
“God desires peace for every nation, a peace that is not merely an absence of conflict but one that is an expression of justice and dignity,” Leo told a crowd of several thousand people at the monument to Algeria’s martyrs.
At a later meeting with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and other government authorities, Leo praised Algerians for their solidarity and respect for one another, which he said provided an important perspective today “on the global balance of power.”
“Today, this is more urgent than ever in the face of continuous violations of international law and neocolonial tendencies,” he said without elaborating, though he has previously spoken about Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Iran war and Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon.