Pope’s Africa trip takes him to a source of growth for the church, and critical challenges

When Pope Leo XIV pronounced himself a “son of St. Augustine” the night of his election, some Algerians took that to mean his ancestors hailed from the North African country where the 5th century saint lived and died.

Leo’s line, of course, referred to his Augustinian spirituality. But his connection to the Algerian-born St. Augustine, the towering figure of Christianity who is known well to Algeria’s Sunni Muslim majority, served at the very least to favorably introduce Leo to a country that will welcome him Monday for the first-ever papal visit.

Leo’s two-day stay kicks off an ambitious odyssey across four African countries — Algeria, Angola, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea — that is so dizzying in its logistical complexity that it recalls the globe-trotting journeys of St. John Paul II in his early years.

The 70-year-old Leo will cover more than 17,700 kilometers (about 11,000 miles) on 18 flights over