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Pope Leo XIV to visit fastest-growing Catholic continent during 4-nation Africa trip
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Pope Leo XIV starts a four-nation visit to Africa Monday, visiting the fastest-growing continent for the Catholic Church as he embarks on his fourth foreign trip since becoming pontiff in 2025.
While the trip does not include the continent’s most populous nation of Nigeria — where thousands of the faithful have been killed for their religious beliefs — it begins in the Muslim-majority country of Algeria.
The Vatican has called the trip «A pilgrim in Africa.» The main themes Leo is expected to address include peace, migration, the environment, young people and the family, according to the Holy See. He will make 25 speeches in four of Africa’s main languages — French, English, Portuguese and Spanish.
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Pope Leo XIV to visit Algeria on April 13, 2026. (Fateh Guidoum/AP Photo)
Analysts and clerics are keen to stress the overall importance of this visit to the continent. «I believe the Holy Father is walking with the African church in the context of the global church,» Rev. Daniel Male, secretary of the Union of Augustinian Friars of Africa, told the Religion News Service. He added, «he is affirming the African churches’ growth and vibrancy and is also making a statement that the church has a preferential option for the poor and those at the margins.»
The Catholic OSV News added the visit «highlights peace efforts, the works of mercy, and the Catholic Church’s vibrant presence on the continent.»
The National Catholic Register stated that in 1910 Africa was home to less than 1 million Catholics. The latest figures available for 2024 estimate there are now 288 million.
Thousands of Catholics greeted Pope Francis when he visited Kinshasa, Congo, in Feb, 2023. (Jerome Delay/AP Photo)
Commenting on his absence from Nigeria, Frans Cronje, African-based analyst at the Yorktown Foundation for Freedom, told Fox News Digital «Given Nigeria’s role as the epicenter of the terror threat faced by Africa’s Christians, it will be disappointing to many of them to learn that the pope has left that country off his Africa agenda. The country has become ground zero for the global Islamist terror threat.»
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Pope Leo XIV delivers the Urbi et Orbi blessing — Latin for «to the city of Rome and to the world» — from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of Easter Mass he presided over in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)
The pontiff must be invited to a country by the host government. Analysts say that the government of Nigeria may feel a papal visit may be too sensitive at this time. But the Nigerian government did not respond to requests for comment on this issue by Fox News Digital.
Details of the trip include:
Algeria: April 13 to April 15
AFRICA’S CHRISTIAN CRISIS: HOW 2025’S DEADLY ATTACKS FINALLY DREW GLOBAL ATTENTION AFTER TRUMP’S INTERVENTION
The Vatican’s yearbook for 2025, the Annuario Pontificio, states Catholics number 8,740 out of a population of 46–48 million. The pope is believed to be coming to Algeria to visit the ancient city of Hippo, now called Annaba. The city was home to St. Augustine, the ‘doctor of the church.’ Pope Leo is the first pontiff to belong to the Augustinian Order.
He is also expected to emphasize interfaith dialogue with Islam when he visits the Great Mosque of Algiers. This is one of the biggest in the world, capable of accommodating up to 120,000 people.
Algeria prepares for visit of Pope Leo XIV (Fateh Guidoum/AP Photo)
The 2026 Open Doors World Watch List placed Algeria in the 20th position for Christian persecution. It said 47 churches of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) have been closed by the authorities.
The Associated Press reported that Algerian authorities rejected a Vatican request for Leo to visit to Médéa to pray at the Tibhirine monastery, the place where seven French Trappist monks were kidnapped and killed May 21, 1996, by Islamic extremists during the country’s civil war.
Cameroon: April 15 to April 18
The Catholic EWTN organization reports that Catholics make up between 30% and 35% of the population of some 30 million.
The pope will preside over five public Masses and addresses in three cities. He will also meet with vulnerable children at the Ngul Zamba Orphanage in the capital city of Yaoundé.
A local sits beneath hanging Catholic devotional scarves and banners, including images of Our Lady of Fatima, Jesus Christ and Pope Leo XIV, outside Our Lady of Fatima Parish, a church identified by Catholic officials as one of the sites expected to be visited by Pope Leo XIV during a planned trip to the country, in Luanda, Angola, April 12, 2026 (Cesar Muginga/ Reuters)
Angola: April 18 to April 21
In the latest government census, some 56% of Angola’s population identified as being Catholic.
The most significant part of the pope’s visit to Angola is expected to be when he goes to the town of Muxima, where he will pray at a shrine to the Virgin Mary, known locally as «Mama Muxima», or «mother of the heart.» This is said to be the spiritual home for many Angolans, drawing over two million pilgrims to visit it every year.
Pope Leo XIV will visit Angola in April 2026. (Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images)
Equatorial Guinea: April 21 to April 23
The Vatican has stated that approximately 80% of the population of Equatorial Guinea are Catholic. Leo will hold several Masses and addresses, and will visit a new psychiatric hospital and a prison. The Jean Pierre Olie Psychiatric Hospital in Sampaka, Malabo, was only inaugurated in December and is the country’s first modern specialized mental health facility. It collaborates with France’s Hospital Saint-Anne in Paris.
In a potentially controversial move, the pope will also visit a prison in Bata notorious for reports of inmate torture and abuse.
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The Vatican did not respond to Fox News Digital questions by press time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
pope leo xiv, religion, africa, islam, algeria
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BATON ROUGE, La. — After taking out five Indiana state senators who opposed his push for congressional redistricting, President Donald Trump’s next target is Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Cassidy, who voted five and a half years ago to convict Trump in his impeachment trial, is fighting for his political life in a competitive race against two major challengers, including one backed by the president, in Saturday’s GOP Senate primary in the solidly red southern state.
The president on Saturday morning took aim at Cassidy, arguing the senator is «a disloyal disaster» and «a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA.»
Trump and his allies, including Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, are backing GOP Rep. Julia Letlow in the Senate primary. Also in the race is former Rep. John Fleming, who is the state treasurer. If no candidate cracks 50% of the primary vote, the top two finishers will face off for the nomination in a June 27 runoff election.
The primary is the latest test of Trump’s endorsements in GOP nomination races and of the president’s immense grip over the Republican Party.
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Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana fist bumps a supporter during a campaign stop at a gun retailer and firing range in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Friday, May 15, 2026, on the eve of the state’s Senate primary. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News )
After cruising to re-election six years ago, Cassidy was one of only seven Senate Republicans who voted in early 2021 to convict Trump after he was impeached by the House for his role in the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters who aimed to upend congressional certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump was acquitted by the Senate.
But since the start of Trump’s second term, Cassidy has been supportive of the president’s agenda and his nominees, including voting to approve Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement are out for revenge.
That’s because Cassidy, a doctor, has been a skeptic of Kennedy’s push to reform the nation’s health policies, including Kennedy’s efforts to cut back on vaccine recommendations.
And Kennedy allies blamed Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, for helping sink the surgeon general nomination of Casey Means, a close Kennedy ally and top MAHA advocate, after Cassidy did not bring it to a committee vote.
Meanwhile, Trump has blasted the senator as a «very disloyal person.»
And on the eve of the primary, the president took to social media to praise Letlow as a «Highly Respected America First Congresswoman.»
Making Cassidy’s climb to renomination even tougher, Louisiana will now run separate party primaries in the Senate race, which replaces a system where all candidates appeared in one single jungle primary. That guarantees a more conservative and pro-Trump electorate for the GOP nomination.
Cassidy is highlighting his record over two terms in the Senate in delivering for Louisiana, which is one of the nation’s poorest states. And he’s showcased his support for Louisiana’s large oil and gas industry, which accounts for roughly 15% of the state’s workforce.
«When people ask things such as, can you work with President Trump, I point out that he has signed into law four bills that I wrote or negotiated,» the senator said in a primary eve interview with Fox News Digital. «We continue to work together, by the way.»
And Cassidy touted that he’s «a conservative senator who delivers.»
In trying to avert becoming the first elected Republican senator in nearly a decade and a half to be ousted in a primary, Cassidy and an allied super PAC have dished out more than $20 million on ads, according to AdImpact, a national ad tracking firm. That total is more than Letlow and Fleming, combined, have spent.
Some of those ads have knocked Letlow over her past support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs during her tenure at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Cassidy argued that Republican voters are «concerned about her shifting position on DEI. She was all in for DEI.»
LETLOW EXPLAINS HER PAST SUPPORT FOR DIVERSITY PROGRAMS
President Donald Trump stands with Rep. Julia Letlow during the Congressional Ball at the White House Grand Foyer in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 11, 2025. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Defending her record, Letlow explained in a Fox News Digital interview on Friday that «back in 2020 whenever DEI was introduced to us, we had no idea what it was back then, and I quickly witnessed it. I was in higher education at the time. I quickly witnessed the left completely hijack it, turn it into this Marxist leftist indoctrination of our children. And so, when I got to Congress for the last five years, I’ve been fighting against it.
And she charged that the criticism of her from Cassidy and Fleming over DEI is «all baseless attacks, desperate attacks.»
Letlow won her congressional seat in 2021, after her husband, Luke Letlow, died six days after being sworn into the U.S. House after his 2020 election victory for the seat she now holds.
She was backed by Trump even before she entered the race.
«Not only did he encourage me to get into this race, but also to have his complete and total endorsement has been, wow, the honor of a lifetime,» Letlow said.
Letlow has taken aim at Cassidy for his bipartisan efforts in the Senate, including his vote for the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law that was a signature domestic achievement for then-President Joe Biden.
Asked about her criticism, Cassidy said the «people want someone who can deliver for Louisiana. The Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act has brought $13.5 billion to Louisiana for roads and bridges and high-speed internet, and along the way creating a lot of good paying jobs. My opponent opposed that bill.»
Fleming, who served as a White House deputy chief of staff during Trump’s first term, has argued that he’s the most conservative candidate in the GOP Senate primary.
‘They see me clearly MAGA,» Fleming told Fox News Digital, as he referred to Louisiana Republicans. «I served in his entire first administration at various capacities. I was one of the first congressmen that endorsed him in 2016.»
Fleming claimed that Letlow is «not the prototype for a Trump endorsement. She’s much more like a Democrat.»
And Fleming, apparently, has become a threat to Letlow, as a super PAC supporting the congresswoman started to run ads attacking him.
But Trump’s endorsement in the nomination race weighs heavily in a state he carried by 22 points in his 2024 election victory.
«It’s the most powerful endorsement in the world,» Letlow said, adding that Louisiana Republicans «are huge fans of the president.»
And the Louisiana primary comes a week and a half after Indiana’s primary, where Trump-backed challengers ousted five state senators who had defied the president over his redistricting push.
The political world was closely watching Indiana’s primary because it was the first of a series of major tests this month of Trump’s endorsement power in GOP nomination showdowns, and the president cleared his first hurdle with ease.
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Voters in Louisiana will also cast ballots in primary contests for State Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and state school board, along with five proposed state constitutional amendments.
But the primaries for the U.S. House seats were postponed by Landry after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current congressional district map.
Republican state senators in Louisiana on Thursday advanced a plan to eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional seats ahead of the midterms. Louisiana’s state House will likely vote on the map next week. The U.S. House primaries are being postponed until November.
donald trump, primary results, republicans elections, louisiana, senate elections, elections
INTERNACIONAL
Drago, el perro policía uruguayo que encontró 118 kilos de droga y se volvió clave en la lucha contra el narcotráfico
Drago, un pastor belga malinois, tiene apenas cuatro años y es integrante de la cuarta generación de perros detectores de la Dirección General de Represión al Tráfico Ilícito de Drogas en Uruguay. Su imagen fue difundida recientemente por el Ministerio del Interior del país, luego de que fuera clave para localizar un cargamento de unos 180 kilos de pasta base, que estaban ocultos en una camioneta que se dirigía a Paraguay.
Con 45 días de nacido, Drago comenzó a ser adiestrado y cumplió su fase preoperativa antes de cumplir el año y medio, de acuerdo a la información difundida por el Ministerio del Interior. El perro está adiestrado para la búsqueda de distintos tipos de sustancias.
El proceso de formación tuvo en su etapa inicial una “habituación”, que la que se lo expone a diferentes escenarios operativos, como controles de rutas, requisas en cárceles, allanamientos, inspecciones en terminales de pasajeros, aeropuertos y búsqueda de encomiendas.
¿Qué característica tienen que tener estos animales para ser parte? La principal es tener una “obsesión por el juego y el juguete”, explicó uno de los investigadores de la Policía uruguaya, que no fue identificado en la publicación para preservar su identidad. Además, debe tener un “temperamento adecuado, intensidad para búsqueda y resistencia física”, entre otras cualidades.
Drago tiene un entrenamiento continuo. Para enseñarle a detectar drogas, se utilizaron “pseudo sustancias sintéticas”, que simulan el olor a la original. Tienen el olor de sustancias como la marihuana, cocaína, pasta base y éxtasis.
Este aprendizaje fue el que le permitió al perro dar con esta cantidad de kilos de pasta base, que lo llevaron a ser un perro reconocido hasta en la televisión uruguaya.
El procedimiento se realizó en la ruta 1 y Camino General Escuela Basilio Múñoz, en la periferia de Montevideo. Durante una inspección a los vehículos, policías detectaron una anomalía en el piso de una camioneta y solicitaron que Drago interviniera.
Fue en ese momento que el perro detectó el olor característico de la droga y efectuó una “indicación pasiva”, según informó el Ministerio del Interior. ¿Qué fue lo que hizo? Se sentó en el lugar exacto donde se encontraba oculto el cargamento. El foco del olor estaba debajo del asiento del conductor.
Luego, los efectivos incautaron 111 ladrillos de pasta base de cocaína. Equivalen a 790.000 dosis, valuadas en aproximadamente un millón de dólares en el mercado local.
“Drago, ha tenido múltiples actuaciones positivas e incautaciones en lo que va de su servicio destacando su valentía y profesionalismo, convirtiéndose en una pieza clave en la lucha contra el narcotráfico”, destacó el Ministerio del Interior.
El encargado del K9 de narcóticos dio una entrevista a Puesta a Punto, de Canal 12, aunque de espaldas para no revelar la identidad, y contó que hay un “mito social” referido a que los perros son drogados cuando se los entrena.
“Eso no es así. Ellos se entrenan desde los 45 días de nacido, por aproximadamente un año, un año y medio, diariamente, y se asocia el olor de la sustancia a un juguete. O sea, cuando realiza la búsqueda lo que él recibe a cambio es el juguete. En realidad, él busca el juguete”. Contó.
Una de las características de esta raza es que los perros tienen una “obsesión por el juego”.
La mamá de Drago también fue integrante del plantel. El perro conformó una camada de 10 cachorros y él fue seleccionado. Ac
El perro vive en una residencia policial en el barrio Prado de Montevideo, junto a otros hermanos. Los guías los entrenan y los alimentan, y tienen servicio veterinario durante 24 horas. Duermen en caniles acondicionados.
corresponsal: Desde Montevideo
INTERNACIONAL
WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Central Africa a public health emergency after 80 suspected deaths
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The World Health Organization declared an Ebola outbreak in Central Africa an international public health emergency on Sunday after dozens of suspected deaths were reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Uganda.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency, the WHO said.
The declaration follows reports of 80 suspected deaths, eight laboratory-confirmed cases and 246 suspected cases as of Saturday across at least three health zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu.
The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring a rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius cruise ship, which left multiple passengers and crew members sick, and caused three deaths.
NEW EBOLA OUTBREAK LEAVES 65 DEAD AS OFFICIALS WARN OF CROSS-BORDER SPREAD
A health worker sprays disinfectant on a colleague after working at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, on Sept. 9, 2018. (Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP)
As of May 13, the WHO said 11 hantavirus cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case.
In neighboring Uganda’s capital, Kampala, the WHO said two apparently unrelated laboratory-confirmed Ebola cases — including one death — were reported Friday and Saturday involving people who had traveled from the DRC.
Another laboratory-confirmed case was reported in the DRC capital of Kinshasa involving a person returning from Ituri province.
Initial tests suggested the outbreak does not involve the Ebola Zaire strain, which caused Congo’s devastating 2018–2020 epidemic that killed more than 1,000 people.
EBOLA OUTBREAK REPORTED IN AFRICAN COUNTRY — HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Health workers wearing protective suits tend to an Ebola victim in an isolation tent in Beni, Congo, on July 13, 2019. (Jerome Delay/AP)
However, unlike Ebola-Zaire strains, there are currently no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain, which the WHO described as making the outbreak «extraordinary.»
The WHO warned the outbreak could be larger than currently reported due to the high positivity rate among initial samples and the growing number of suspected cases.
The outbreak also poses a public health risk to other countries, the WHO said, urging nations to activate emergency-management systems and implement cross-border screening measures.
‘DISEASE X’ HAS KILLED DOZENS IN THE CONGO — HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE MYSTERY ILLNESS
Ambulances parked at Bunia General Referral Hospital following confirmation of an Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain in Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 16, 2026. (REUTERS/Victoire Mukenge)
Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal disease spread through bodily fluids, including blood, vomit and semen. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and internal bleeding.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said Congo has a «strong track record» responding to Ebola outbreaks while announcing the release of $500,000 in emergency funding to support containment efforts.
The WHO said it will convene an emergency committee to review recommendations for how affected countries should respond.
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Health workers dressed in protective gear begin their shift at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, Congo, on July 16, 2019. (Jerome Delay/AP)
The organization did not recommend border closures or travel restrictions.
Congo has now recorded 17 Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first identified in the country in 1976.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Brittany Miller, along with Reuters, contributed to this report.
world health organization, ebola, hantavirus, africa, outbreaks
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