Pope Leo XIV visiting Algeria to open Africa trip and honor locally born St. Augustine

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Pope Leo XIV embarked 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 U.S.-born pope deep into the growing heart of the Catholic Church.

The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran cast a cloud over the trip, after President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary broadside against Leo on Sunday night, saying he should “stop catering to the Radical Left.” Leo had blasted the “delusion of omnipotence” fueling the war during a peace prayer service.

Leo responded on the plane en route to Algeria, saying the Vatican’s appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel, and that he didn’t fear the Trump administration.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune greeted Leo upon his arrival at Algiers' international airport before they were to 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.

In Algeria, a tiny Catholic community of around 9,000 people made up mostly of foreigners exists alongside the Sunni Muslim majority of about 47 million, according to Vatican statistics.

The archbishop of Algiers, French Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, said on any given day, nine out of 10 people who visit the basilica are Muslim.

“It’s wonderful to be able to show that we can be brothers and sisters together, building a society despite our different religions,” Vesco told The Associated Press on the eve of Leo’s arrival. “And that is what our church has been doing since this country gained independence.”

The United States, though, has placed Algeria on its special watch list for “having engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom.” The Algerian constitution recognizes “religions other than Islam” and allows individuals to practice their faith if they respect public order and rules.

But proselytizing to Muslims by non-Muslims is a crime, and some other Christian denominations have faced persecution from Algerian authorities, who have closed their churches.

“I imagine it’s a good thing that a pope is visiting Algeria,” said Selma Dénane, a student who lives in Annaba down the coast from Algiers. “But what will it change afterward? Will Christians be able to say, ‘I am a Christian’ without fear or stigmatization?’”

Three decades after declaring independence from France, Algeria fought a brutal civil war in the 1990s that is known locally as the “black decade,” when some 250,000 people were killed as the army fought an Islamist insurgency.

Among those killed were 19 Catholics, including seven Trappist monks from the Tibhirine monastery south of Algiers, who were kidnapped and killed in 1996 by Islamic fighters. Also among the 19 were two nuns from Leo’s Augustinian religious family.

On his first day in Algeria, Leo will pay homage to the 19 martyrs and visit the remaining Augustinian nuns who run a social services project out of the Algiers basilica that helps people of all faiths.

“They gave their lives for God, for Jesus, for the church, for the Algerian people because they didn’t want to leave the country, even in the difficult moments,” said Sister Lourdes Miguelez.

All 19 were beatified in 2018 as martyrs for the faith in what was then the first such beatification ceremony in the Muslim world.

Vesco, the Algiers archbishop, likes to remind audiences that Leo was elected on May 8, the Catholic feast day of the 19 martyrs. Immediately after Leo’s election, Vesco invited him to visit.

Leo has another connection to the Trappist monks: He has made a mantra out of one of the sayings of the martyred prior of the Tibherine monastery, Christian de Chergé, who spoke of an “unarmed and disarming peace.” Leo has cited the line starting from the night of his election.

“Obviously he will speak a lot about peace, it’s urgent and current,” Vesco said.

For Leo, the visit to Algeria is pastoral but also deeply personal. His Augustinian religious order was inspired by the teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo, the 5th century theological and philosophical titan of the early Christian church who was born in what is today Algeria and spent all but five years of his life there.

On Tuesday, Leo will visit Annaba, the modern-day Hippo where St. Augustine was bishop for three decades, and will literally walk in the footsteps of the saint.

From his first public words as pope, Leo proclaimed himself a “son of St. Augustine,” and he has made that clear in his first year, repeatedly citing the church father in his speeches and homilies.

“I don’t know if I have seen a statement, a homily, an apostolic letter or exhortation that doesn’t reference Augustine,” said Paul Camacho, associate director of the Augustinian Institute at Villanova University, Leo’s Augustinian-run alma mater outside Philadelphia.

“The shadow that he casts on Western thought, not just the Roman Catholic Church but on Western thought more broadly, is very, very long indeed,” he said.

Ouali and Santalucia reported from Algiers, Algeria.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, center right, upon his arrival at Algiers' Houari Boumédiène International Airport on Monday, April 13, 2026, at the start of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV speaks to journalists aboard his flight bound for Algiers’ Houari Boumédiène International Airport on Monday, April 13, 2026, at the start of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (Alberto Pizzoli/Pool Photo via AP)

Pope Leo XIV is welcomed by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, right, upon his arrival at Algiers' Houari Boumédiène International Airport on Monday, April 13, 2026, at the start of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A man sits inside the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Annaba, eastern Algeria, Saturday, April 11, 2026, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

A view of the church of Notre Dame d'Afrique, ahead of a Pope Leo XIV visit, in Algiers, Algeria, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

People sit outside the Church of Notre Dame d'Afrique, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit, in Algiers, Algeria, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

A banner showing a photo of Pope Leo XIV and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Annaba, eastern Algeria, Saturday, April 11, 2026, ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. The banner in Arabic reads, "Let's live in peace and harmony." (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

Pope Leo XIV delivers the Regina Coeli prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV pushed back Monday on President Donald Trump’s broadside against him over the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, telling reporters that the Vatican’s appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel, and that he doesn’t fear the Trump administration.

“To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is,” Leo told AP aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria. “And I’m sorry to hear that but I will continue on what I believe is the mission of the church in the world today.”

History’s first U.S.-born pope stressed that he was not making a direct attack against Trump or anyone else with his general appeal for peace and criticisms of the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the Iran wars and other conflicts around the world.

“I will not enter into debate. The things that I say are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone. The message of the Gospel is very clear: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’” Leo said.

“I will not shy away from announcing the message of the Gospel and inviting all people to look for ways of building bridges of peace and reconciliation, and looking for ways to avoid war any time that’s possible”

Speaking to other reporters, he added: “I have no fear of the Trump administration.”

Trump delivered an extraordinary broadside against Leo on Sunday night, saying he didn't think the U.S.-born global leader of the Catholic Church is “doing a very good job” and that “he's a very liberal person," while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left.”

Flying back to Washington from Florida, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticize Leo, then kept it up after deplaning, in comments on the tarmac to reporters.

“I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.

Trump's comments came after Leo suggested over the weekend that a “delusion of omnipotence” is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. While it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the pope to directly criticize a U.S. leader — and Trump’s stinging response is equally uncommon, if not more so.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post, adding, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon."

He repeated that sentiment in comments to reporters, saying, “We don’t like a pope who says it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon.”

Later, Trump posted a picture suggesting he had saint-like powers akin to those of Jesus Christ. Wearing a biblical-style robe, Trump is seen laying hands on a bedridden man as light emanates from his fingers, while a soldier, a nurse, a praying woman and a bearded man in a baseball cap all look on admiringly. The sky above is filled with eagles, an American flag and vaporous images.

All of that came after Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan during a fragile ceasefire. The pope didn’t mention the United States or Trump by name, but his tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.

Leo, who is on an 11-day trip to Africa starting Monday — has previously said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” He's also referenced an Old Testament passage from Isaiah, saying that “even though you make many prayers, I will not listen — your hands are full of blood.”

Before the ceasefire, when Trump warned of mass strikes against Iranian power plants and other infrastructure and that “an entire civilization will die tonight,” Leo described such sentiments as “truly unacceptable.”

In his social media post on Sunday night, however, Trump went far beyond the war in Iran in criticizing Leo.

The president wrote, “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States.” That was a reference to the Trump administration having ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.

“I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do,” Trump added, referencing his 2024 election victory.

He also suggested in the post that Leo only got his position “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump wrote, adding, “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”

In his subsequent comments to reporters, Trump remained highly critical, saying of Leo, “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess” and adding, “He’s a very liberal person.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement saying he was “disheartened” by Trump's comments.

“Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls,” Coakley said.

In the 2024 election, Trump won 55% of Catholic voters, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. But Trump's administration also has close ties to conservative evangelical Protestant leaders and has claimed heavenly endorsement for the war on Iran.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Americans to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ.” And, when Trump was asked whether he thought God approved of the war, he said, “I do, because God is good — because God is good and God wants to see people taken care of.”

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Winfield reported from aboard the papal plane.

Pope Leo XIV speaks to journalists aboard his flight bound for Algiers’ Houari Boumédiène International Airport on Monday, April 13, 2026, at the start of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa. (Alberto Pizzoli/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, April 12, 2026, after he returned from Miami. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Pope Leo XIV delivers the Regina Coeli prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, April 12, 2026, after he returned from Miami. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)