Pope making first papal visit to Algeria to launch Africa trip

ROME, April 13, (AP): Pope Leo XIV is embarking Monday on the first-ever papal trip to Algeria, aiming to promote Christian-Muslim coexistence at a time of global conflict and honor the locally born inspiration of his religious spirituality, St Augustine. Leo’s two-day stop in Algeria opens an intense 11-day tour of four African nations - Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea - that will bring history’s first US born pope deep into the growing heart of the Catholic Church.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was set to greet Leo upon his arrival at Algiers' international airport before they meet formally at the El Mouradia presidential palace. Later Monday, Leo was to address Algerian authorities and visit the city’s Great Mosque. He was finishing the day with a gathering at the Our Lady of Africa basilica, and then prayers at a nearby monument for migrants killed in shipwrecks trying to reach Europe.

The gathering at the basilica, a Roman-Byzantine structure built in the late 1800s during France’s colonial rule, will feature testimony from a Catholic nun, a Pentecostal believer and Muslim, as well as remarks by the pope. The official motto of the Algeria trip is Leo’s opening line wherever he goes - "Peace be with you” - and the Vatican says a general message of peace and Christian-Muslim coexistence will be the major theme.