사회

The Pope in Africa

The continent is crucial to the future of the church, but it’s also the center of long-running tensions over some of Catholicism’s most charged issues. The American president has been...

NYTIMES 입력 2026.04.16 06:22 0

Pope Leo XIV

in Africa

What to Know

The Future of Catholicism

Augustinian Roots

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

Newsletter

The World

The Pope in Africa

The continent is crucial to the future of the church, but it’s also the center of long-running tensions over some of Catholicism’s most charged issues.

Share full article

Katrin Bennhold

I’m the host of The World.

April 15, 2026,

5:21 p.m. ET

See more of our coverage in your search results.

Encuentra más de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de búsqueda.

Add The New York Times on Google

Agrega The New York Times en Google

The American president has been sparring with the American pope. After Leo XIV condemned “absurd and inhuman violence” in the Middle East, President Trump called the pope “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy” and said Leo was in the Vatican only because of him.

That, along with an A.I.-generated image of Trump as a healing Jesus — Trump later argued it portrayed him as a doctor — made for a lot of dramatic headlines this week. But from the church’s perspective, all this is overshadowing the main focus of Leo’s current trip. Today my colleague Motoko Rich, who is on the road with him, writes about a place that is central to the future of Catholicism: Africa.

Image

Pope Leo arrived in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, yesterday.

Credit...

Daniel Beloumou Olomo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The future of the Catholic church is in Africa. It could get complicated.

By Motoko Rich

There are already 288 million African Catholics, representing more than one fifth of the faithful worldwide. The religion is growing faster in Africa than on any other continent.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and

log into

your Times account, or

for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?

Want all of The Times?