Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV will make a ten-day Apostolic Journey to Africa and two others in Europe, the Holy See Press Office announced on Wednesday.
The first visit will be a day trip at the end of March to the Principality of Monaco, followed by the Africa Journey in April, and finally the six-day Journey to Spain and in the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands in June.
After the significant journey to Türkiye and Lebanon at the end of 2025 and after the announcement of the upcoming pastoral visits in Italy that will take him as far as Lampedusa, Pope Leo is resuming his pilgrimages throughout the world.
Africa
The longest—from 13 to 23 April—will see him following in the footsteps of Saint Augustine in Algeria, where he will visit Algiers and Annaba; then visiting Cameroon in Central Africa, with stops in Yaoundé, Bamenda and Douala; Angola, where he will visit Luanda, Muxima and Saurimo; and finally, Equatorial Guinea, where he will visit Malabo, Mongomo and Bata.
This will be a complex trip, which is at the same time a journey in memory of the saint of Hippo, to whose figure the Successor of Peter is linked; and then touching two developing countries, with particular attention to the least, the poor and those who care for them.
Moreover, the Journey will be focused on peace.
Pope Leo will go to the Anglophone region in the north of Cameroon, where for ten years a civil war has been underway involving the regular armed forces and the separatists.
The final stage of this African Journey will be to Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish-speaking African country.
The length of this Papal Visit approaches that of Pope Saint John Paul II in 1985, when he visited seven countries in 11 days.
Principality of Monaco
Yet it is a lightning European day trip to the Principality of Monaco, scheduled for 28 March, on the eve of Holy Week, that will inaugurate the Holy Father’s Apostolic Journeys for the first half of 2026.
The Pope desired to respond positively to the repeated invitations made by the Monegasque authorities, first to Pope Francis and then to himself.
The Principality is a European reality where Catholicism is the State religion and where dialogue between civil institutions and the Church remains a matter of concrete importance in the public debate.
Also significant is the Principality’s commitment to peace, which will welcome a Pope for the first time in the modern era.
Spain
Finally, from 6 to 12 June Leo will visit Spain, first the capital Madrid and then Barcelona, where he will inaugurate the newest and tallest tower of the Sagrada Familia, the monumental basilica that has reshaped the skyline of the Catalan city.
The visit falls on the hundredth anniversary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, the brilliant architect who “dreamed” the Basilica by beginning to build it, and who last year was declared a Venerable Servant of God.
Continuing his Journey to Spain, the Holy Father will travel from Barcelona to the Canary Islands archipelago, to carry out a journey that was already in the heart of the late Pope Francis, as the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo Cano, underlined in January.
While in the Canary Islands, the Pope will visit Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
Diverse and meaningful destinations
Through these three Apostolic Journeys, Pope Leo will have the opportunity to encounter the most diverse types of countries and situations.
He will move from Algeria, a Muslim nation where Christians are a small minority and a seed of fraternity, to countries with a Christian majority situated in the heart of the African Continent, with their challenges, but also their joyful testimony of faith.
The Holy Father likewise will make a brief trip to the second smallest country in the world after Vatican City, located on the French Riviera; to a large European country, Spain, whose identity has been shaped by the Christian faith, but also affected by secularization. And finally, the Holy Father will conclude the Apostolic Journey in the Canary Islands, one of the main migratory routes from Africa toward Europe, with tens of thousands of landings every year. – Vatican News
