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Pope Leo XIV arrived to celebrate Mass in Douala, Cameroon, on Friday.Andrew Medichini/Associated Press
Is the pope Catholic?
Apparently,
that’s an actual question now, thanks to our vice president, who, like
the president and the rest of his lickspittles, has a problem with Leo
XIV calling for an end to war, cruelty, and violence.
The pontiff has really been cooking in recent weeks, urging us to “abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power,” which are “entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”
On Palm Sunday, he warned against invoking Jesus to justify war, and
quoted Isaiah, in which God says, “Even though you make many prayers, I
will not listen: your hands are full of blood.” On Thursday, he spoke of “a handful of tyrants” who are ravaging the earth.
Pope
Leo XIV blesses the faithful with holy water at the beginning of
Pentecost Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on June 8, 2025. Credit: CNS photo/Lola Gomez.
After Pope Leo XIV was elected on May 8, 2025, many prognosticators
and colleagues predicted a quiet beginning to his pontificate. The
former Robert Prevost, several said,
“takes his time and listens before speaking or taking concrete action.”
World events and the desires of so many—Catholic and not—for the pope’s
commentary or considerations might have forever eliminated the
possibility of a quiet first year for any pontiff. But as we approach
the one-year anniversary of his election, we can see the outlines of a
papacy that combines quiet and measured deliberation with a clear and
prophetic voice on many issues of the day, ecclesial and not.
Pope
Leo drew attention to the food crisis and the poverty that is causing
great suffering for so many people, even though the land is rich in
agricultural and other resources.
Pope
Leo XIV walks with his crosier as he arrives to celebrate Mass at
Bamenda International Airport in Cameroon April 16, 2026. Credit: OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters
Tens of thousands of Cameroonians, many waving branches symbolizing
peace, lined the streets of Bamenda to give a hero’s welcome to Pope Leo
when he arrived in the capital city of the restive Anglophone region of
Cameroon on his second day in the country.
They hailed him as one who could help bring an end to the 10-year-old
conflict that has pitted the separatist movement in the region against
the Francophone central government and has brought immense suffering to
this part of the country.
He arrived by plane from Yaoundé at the local airport after a
one-hour flight and was driven to St. Joseph Cathedral, where an even
bigger crowd awaited him.
The welcome Leo received in Bamenda today reminded me of the ecstatic
welcome Pope Francis was given when he arrived in the war-torn Central
African Republic in November 2015. And like his predecessor then, the
look on Leo’s face today and the words he spoke revealed that he was
overjoyed to be there as an apostle of peace seeking to help end a
conflict and give hope to the region’s inhabitants.
The cathedral was packed to capacity with many women from different
religious orders and religious associations, as well as priests,
seminarians and lay people, together with representatives of the
Protestant churches, traditional religions and Islam, who had come
together to work for peace.
They sang with gusto several hymns in English, including, at the end, “Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace.”
The encounter for peace, as it was called, began with words of
welcome from the archbishop of Bambenda, the Most Rev. Andrew Nkea
Fuanya, who said Leo had come at a time when the people of the Northwest
and Southwest regions of Cameroon “need your presence and your comfort
the most.”
Describing the situation of the regions, Bishop Fuanya said:
We have seen a lot of suffering for the past eight years. Many of our
people have suffered a lot from a situation they did not create, and
thousands are either internally displaced or escaped as refugees.
Businesses were shut down and for about four years, our children were
not allowed to go to school. Children were used as a bait for political
motives and struggle. Many priests, religious and even bishops of this
province have been either harassed, beaten, kidnapped or even killed in
this conflict, and yet the church continues to carry the Gospel message
as the light of hope among a traumatized people. Many women have been
rendered widows, children rendered orphans, and many people rendered
homeless by this crisis.
He concluded, “We are happy because in this time of crisis, we see
you as a messenger of Peace; we see you as an ambassador of
reconciliation; we see you as a promoter of justice; we see in you the
presence of God Himself among us who has come to visit his people like
the dawn from on high.”
Five people then gave testimonies of their harrowing experience
during the conflict: a tribal chief whose father had gifted the land to
the church on which the cathedral was built; a Presbyterian emeritus
moderator; an imam; a religious sister who had been kidnapped for three
days and the father of a displaced family that had to leave their home
and belongings to save their lives. The imam, Fonki Samuel Forba, told
the pope, “We thank God that this crisis has not degenerated into a
religious war, and we are still trying to love one another despite our
religions.”
Pope
Leo XIV embraces a girl during his pastoral visit to Bamenda, Cameroon
April 16, 2026.That day the pontiff attended a Meeting for Peace and
celebrated Mass. (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media)
Pope Leo thanked each of them and then delivered a heartfelt appeal
for reconciliation, peace and an end to the forgotten conflict in this
region of the world.
“As your testimonies have just demonstrated, the lived experience of
suffering by your community has only made stronger your conviction that
God has never abandoned us! In him, in his peace, we can always begin
anew,” he said.
Today, an ever-more confident Pope Leo spoke with a passion that we
have rarely seen hitherto, even adding some off-the-cuff phrases to his
prepared text.
He commended their commitment and work for peace in difficult times
and told them: “I am here to proclaim peace. Yet I find it is you who
are proclaiming peace to me, and to the entire world.” He noted that the
crisis impacting these regions of Cameroon “has brought Christian and
Muslim communities closer than ever before. Indeed, your religious
leaders have come together to establish a movement for peace, through
which they seek to mediate between the opposing sides.”
“I wish this would happen in so many other places on earth,” the pope added.
Then, in significant words that were read here as addressed not only
to those involved in the conflict in Cameroon but also to those
conducting wars in other parts of the world, Pope Leo said: “Blessed are
the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very
name of God for their own military, economic and political gain,
dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Leo extolled their “hunger and thirst for justice” and said,
“Bamenda, today you are the city on the hill, resplendent in the eyes of
all!”
He expressed gratitude to all those engaged in this work for peace,
and especially “the lay and religious women, who care for individuals
traumatized by violence,” which, he said, “is an enormous task that goes
unseen day by day, and it is also dangerous.”
In this context, Pope Leo again denounced those conducting war. He
said: “The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a
moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild. They
turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on
killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education
and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
He also denounced those who exploit the natural resources of Cameroon
and other countries in Africa. “Those who rob your land of its
resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus
perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilization and death. It is a
world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be
denounced and rejected by every honest conscience,” he said
He called for “a decisive change of course—a true conversion—that
will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in
human fraternity.” Not mincing words, he said, “The world is being
ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude
of supportive brothers and sisters! “
Pope Leo urged those present committed to peace:
Let us look into each other’s eyes: We are this immense people! Peace
is not something we must invent: It is something we must embrace by
accepting our neighbor as a brother or sister. We do not choose our
brothers and sisters: We simply must accept one another! We are one
family, inhabiting the same home: this wonderful planet that ancient
cultures have cared for over millennia.
Upon leaving the cathedral, Leo released seven doves as a symbol of the peace he hopes will soon become a reality here.
That afternoon, before returning to Yaoundé and his residence at the
Vatican embassy, Pope Leo celebrated a festive Mass in English, enriched
by African hymns and music, for some 20,000 Cameroonians at the airport
base, after driving among them in a closed, protected popemobile.
Pope
Leo XIV elevates the host as he celebrates Mass at Bamenda
International Airport in Cameroon April 16, 2026. (OSV News photo/Simone
Risoluti, Vatican Media)
The American missionary pope is deeply committed to social justice,
as he made clear from the name he chose at his election. This commitment
was also evident in his homily today as he drew attention to serious
problems of injustice in this majority-Christian country of 30 million
people.
“Our hope for a future of peace and reconciliation, in which the
dignity of every person is respected and their fundamental rights
guaranteed, is continually disappointed by the many problems afflicting
this beautiful land,” Leo said. “These include the numerous forms of
poverty, which even recently have affected so many people amidst an
ongoing food crisis.”
Repeating what he had said at the palace last evening, Pope Leo said,
“There is moral, social and political corruption, seen above all in the
management of wealth, which hinders the development of institutions and
infrastructure.” Pointing to challenges related to education, health
care and out-migration, he said these problems “are often fueled by
hatred and violence” as well as outsiders “who, in the name of profit,
continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and
plunder it.”
He acknowledged that “all of this can make us feel powerless and
diminish our confidence,” but he told them in words that drew strong
applause from the crowd: “This is the moment to change, to transform the
story of this country. The time has come, today and not tomorrow, now
and not in the future, to restore the mosaic of unity by bringing
together the diversity and riches of the country and the continent. In
this way, it will be possible to create a society in which peace and
reconciliation reign.”
After this extraordinary day in which he pitched hard for peace in
this region, Pope Leo took the plane back to Yaoundé. Tomorrow, April
17, his last full day in Cameroon, he will fly to Douala, the economic
hub of the country, to celebrate Mass at the Japoma Stadium and visit a
hospital. On returning to the capital, he will speak at the Catholic
University of Central Africa.
