On his way to the third stage of his marathon journey to Africa, minutes after take-off, Pope Leo greeted the journalists on the flight with him between Cameroon and Angola this April 18.
[At the end of the article, find the full text of his greetings, as released by the Vatican.]
“There’s been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when on the first day of the trip the President of the United States made some comments about me,” Pope Leo said, as recounted by Vatican News.
On Sunday night (US time) just hours before the Pope left for Africa on Monday morning (Rome time), US President Donald Trump posted about Leo on his social media account.
As the Holy Father boarded a plane with journalists just some hours after the president's post, they naturally asked him about it (during several different conversations) and he replied to them with various statements.
See here:
The president and also the vice president have said more things about the Pope in the days since. This has led various media outlets to present the situation as a "back-and-forth" but in fact, the Pope has only spoken about it on Monday morning and in response to reporters' questions.
“Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary, trying to interpret what has been said,” Pope Leo XIV said today.
He then referenced his speech in Cameroon on Thursday at a "Meeting for Peace." The speech, he said, "was prepared two weeks ago, well before the person had ever commented on me and on the message of peace that I am promoting. And yet as it happens, it was viewed as if I was trying to debate again with the president, which is not in my interest at all.”
Various media outlets headlined the Pope's comments in Cameroon as if they were directed at the US specifically. A summary of his speech, given in a region of Cameroon plagued by the "Anglophone crisis," is below.
“I primarily come to Africa as pastor, as the head of the Catholic Church, to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany all of the Catholics throughout Africa," Leo said.
Cameroon -- "absolutely fantastic"
Vatican News added:
Through the only Cameroonian journalist present on the papal flight, Charles Ebune of Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV), Pope Leo XIV expressed his gratitude to all the people of Cameroon: “for the wonderful welcome, the great enthusiasm, the joy of the people. It was absolutely fantastic. The experience of the faith community, people who really discovered in the shared enthusiasm…how wonderful it is to experience what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and to celebrate our faith together”. The Pope expressed how “very happy” he is “to have had this experience.”
Update:
Here is the full text as released by the Vatican:
Buongiorno. Bonjour. Good morning everyone. Good afternoon already. I hope you had a good time in Cameroon. And, as you know of course, we are on our way now to Angola.
On the one hand, the visit in Cameroon was very significant because in many ways it represents the heart of Africa, in many different ways, both English-speaking and French-speaking, around 250 local languages, ethnicities.
At the same time, it has great wealth, great opportunity, but also the difficulty we find throughout Africa, so many times, of an unequal distribution of wealth. I was personally very pleased: as you know, we began the trip in Algeria with the theme of Saint Augustine, and yesterday, at the Catholic University, there was the blessing of the beautiful monument that they had prepared with the map of Africa and Saint Augustine at the center. And so, in one sense, it expresses part of what this trip is about.
And I primarily come to Africa as a pastor, as the head of the Catholic Church, to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany all of the Catholics throughout Africa. And yet there are, of course, other dimensions to the visit. I had a very fine meeting with a group of Imams in Cameroon to promote –- continue to promote, as we have done in other places already and as Pope Francis has done during his pontificate –– the dialogue, promotion of fraternity, through understanding, acceptance, peace-building with people of all faiths.
At the same time, there has been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but because of the political situation created when, on the first day of the trip, the President of the United States made some comments about myself. Much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary trying to interpret what has been said.
Just one little example: the talk that I gave at the prayer meeting for peace a couple of days ago was prepared two weeks ago, well before the President ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting. And yet, as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate again the President, which is not in my interest at all. So we go on the journey, we continue proclaiming the Gospel message, and the text of the Gospel we have been using for the liturgies give a number of different, fantastic, beautiful aspects of what it is about to be Christian, of what it is about to follow Christ, of what it is about to promote fraternity, brotherhood, trusting in the Lord, but also looking for ways to promote justice in our world, promote peace in our world.
So with that note, I am very happy to greet all of you, and thank you for the work that you are doing, and I hope that the Lord will continue to bless all of us on this trip. Thank you very much.
Cameroon journalist [in French]:
A few words in French? Yes, thank you, thank you very much, Your Holiness, we just wanted to hear a few words from you in French, since Cameroon is bilingual. I work for Cameroon’s national television station.
Leo XIV
I would just like to thank everyone in Cameroon for the wonderful welcome, the great enthusiasm, the joy of the people. It was absolutely fantastic. The experience of a faith community people who really discovered in the shared enthusiasm, if you will, how wonderful it is to experience what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and to celebrate our faith together. And that enthusiasm was very much present in Cameroon. I am very happy to have had the experience and to accompany all of your people during these days.
