The Pope’s marathon ends. For ten days, Leo XIV crossed four African countries, from Algeria to Equatorial Guinea, via Cameroon and Angola. What lessons can we learn from this journey? The first is political. After Donald Trump publicly attacked his compatriot for his pacifist remarks, the Pope reaffirmed from Algeria the ideal of the common good that he pursues. To be Catholic, he tells us, is not to dominate or enslave, but to bear witness.
In this 98% Muslim country, living one’s Christian faith is more about discretion than asserting one’s identity. Certainly, the Catholic Church is not growing numerically, unlike the evangelical churches – around forty of them have been closed by the Algerian power – but it is making itself present through educational, social or medical actions.
The image of the Pope, seated in the Notre-Dame d’Afrique basilica, under the fresco of the Virgin bearing the inscription “pray for us…and for Muslims”alone says what the Church has chosen to be for sixty years in Algeria. As Cardinal Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers, pointed out, the vocation of Catholics in the land of Islam is not to be proselytes, but to bear witness to a faith lived in fraternity and sharing rather than in conquest. The memory of monks of Tibéhirine recalls this commitment: they refused to leave despite threats, out of loyalty to the local population and their mission. They paid for it with their lives. Following them, we are invited to build bridges between people. A way of seeing oneself in the world which recalls the words of Christ himself: “You are the light of the world. »
Deep challenges
The second lesson is demographic. At Cameroon as in Angola, the median age is less than 20 years. This figure seems almost unreal for aging European societies; the median age exceeding 40 years in France. The African continent is resolutely that of youth.
But this promise of the future faces profound challenges. This is why, in Cameroon as in Angola, the pope has not avoided the question of inequalities. On the contrary, he forcefully named the imbalances that weigh on tomorrow’s generations: “ Those who strip your land of its resources typically invest much of the profits in weapons, in a never-ending spiral of destabilization and death. », he said during a speech for peace in English-speaking Cameroon.
Faith, universal, is always embodied in a particular culture
To face these difficulties, Leo XIV called for chosen roots. “ I invite you above all to respond with an ardent desire to serve your country, and to put at the service of your fellow citizens the knowledge that you are acquiring here “, he declared, however considering “ understandable » the departure of many young adults towards Europe and North America. According to the World Bank, the number of Cameroonian migrants has grown on average by 2.5% per year since 1960.
Striking images
The third lesson is cultural, and concerns rootedness. It is the image of a living Church given by the 600,000 faithful gathered in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. From the airport, the pope was escorted in a popemobile by a dense crowd to the stadium. Perched on a hill, surrounded by an equatorial forest, the Japoma site provided the setting for a celebration of rare spiritual intensity. A choir of 800 people, dressed in colorful traditional fabrics, sang the choruses, while the musicians mixed piano, chromatic balafon and percussion. In an atmosphere that was both festive and collected, Pope Leo XIV celebrated mass in front of a crowd of people deeply collected.
This visible communion gave the celebration a universal dimension. But, above all, it is the fervor and popular faith that leave their mark: the cries, the songs, the tears, the praises. A Church lively and joyful, both rooted in its traditions and open to universality. Because faith, universal, is always incarnated in a particular culture. Thus, the place given to local cultures reminds us that faith speaks to each person according to their customs, their history, and their sensitivity.
These images will have a lasting mark on the pontificate of Leo XIV.
