Pope Leo XIV wrapped up his African odyssey on Thursday with a final Mass in Equatorial Guinea, bringing to an end one of the newsiest papal trips in the history of popes on the road, thanks to his extraordinary back-and-forth with President Donald Trump.
A powerful rainstorm drenched the Malabo sports stadium and the estimated 30,000 people who gathered before dawn for Leo’s farewell liturgy. But the deluge let up before Leo arrived in his covered pope-mobile for a romp through the deafening crowd.
Leo was leaving after an 11-day, four-nation voyage that took him from Algeria in the north of Africa to Angola in the south and Cameroon in between.
Over that time, Leo covered more than 17,700 kilometres (about 11,000 miles) on 18 flights, including three on Wednesday alone that saw him crisscross Equatorial Guinea from the west coast to the far east border with Gabon and back again.
Nearly everywhere Leo went, history’s first US pope received a raucous welcome, especially in the farther away places that had never had a pope visit.
Popes have been traveling the world since Pope Paul VI made the first modern foreign visit in 1964 to Jordan and Israel. But it was St. John Paul II who revolutionised the papacy with his globetrotting papacy that took him on 104 foreign trips over a quarter century, many with the multination itinerary on which Leo’s trip seemed modelled.
At Leo’s final Mass on Thursday, Michaela Mecha and her sister, Encarnacion, arrived at the Malabo stadium in the downpour at 4 am They were dressed from head to toe in pope-themed attire, complete with yellow umbrellas decorated with Leo’s face.
“We feel very special and blessed that the pope has chosen our country,” said Michaela, who works as a nurse and brought her two young daughters with her. “This visit is bringing young people closer to God.”
In his homily, Leo referred to the April 17 death of the Rev. Fr. Fortunato Nsue Esono Ayíambeng, a member of the committee that organized the trip and the vicar general of Malabo.
“May full light be shed on the circumstances of his death,” Leo said, in apparent reference to rumours that foul play might have been involved.
