Pope Leo XIV Visits Cameroon in April 2026

The Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon, has announced the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV to Cameroon from April 15 to 18, 2026.

According to the release, the Pope will travel to Douala, Bamenda and Yaounde.

The Holy See press office also indicated that the Pope will be on a ten day Apostolic Journey to Africa. He is scheduled to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea from April 13 to 23.

An Apostolic Journey that will take him in the footsteps of Saint Augustine in Algeria, where he will visit Algiers and Annaba; then visiting Cameroon in Central Africa, with stops in Yaoundé, Bamenda and Douala; Angola, where he will visit Luanda, Muxima and Saurimo; and finally, Equatorial Guinea, where he will visit Mala, Mongomo and Bata.

Papal Visits To Cameroon

Pope Leo XIV is the third Sovereign pontiff to visit Cameroon after that of two popes have officially visited the country on three separate occasions:

Pope John Paul II (1985): Visited from August 10 to 14, 1985. During this four-day trip, he traveled to Yaoundé, Douala, Garoua, and Bamenda.

Pope John Paul II (1995): Visited for a second time from September 14 to 16, 1995. The primary purpose was the proclamation of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa, in Yaoundé.

Pope Benedict XVI (2009): Visited from March 17 to 20, 2009. This was his first trip to the African continent as Pope, during which he promulgated the Instrumentum laboris for the Second Special Synod for Africa.

Pope Leo XIV: Early Life

Pope Leo XIV, prior to his election was known as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost. He was the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

The 267th Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago. He is the first Augustinian Pope, and the second Pontiff after Pope Francis to come from the Americas.

He spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.

First Augustinian Pope

The new Bishop of Rome , Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.

He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.

On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.

The future Pontiff received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).

Elvis Teke