NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to travel to Africa, its Catholic leaders are underlining the significance of the visit to the continent, where Christianity is on an upsurge.

Leo will visit Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea from April 13-23. It will be his third foreign trip since being elected in May of last year, after his November visit to Turkey, where he marked the 1,700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, and his upcoming one-day visit on March 28 to Monaco, the world’s second smallest state after the Vatican.

The African visit will begin in Algeria, where the pope will tour the Great Mosque of Algiers, the world’s largest Islamic house of worship, and address Algerians from the city’s Catholic cathedral. In the following days he will go to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

According to some Catholic scholars, the mix of countries of his initial visits suggests a focus on interreligious dialogue, peace and the social mission of the Catholic Church, as well as a recognition of Africa’s growing importance in world Christianity.

“The visit to Africa is significant because it highlights the growing importance of the African church within global Catholicism, where the number of faithful and priestly vocations continues to increase,” the Rev. Daniel Male, secretary of the Union of Augustinian Friars of Africa, told Religion News Service in a telephone interview.

“As such, I believe the Holy Father is walking with the African church in the context of the global church. He is affirming the African churches’ growth and vibrancy and also was making a statement that the church has a preferential option for the poor and those at the margins.”

Africa, especially northern Africa, is also home to the oldest Christian communities in the church. Annaba, a Mediterranean port in northeastern Algeria, is the birthplace of Augustine, a fourth-century theologian and so-called doctor of the church who laid down much of Christianity’s thinking about sin and grace. Augustine is also the namesake of Leo’s order, the Augustinians, in which he served as prior general for 12 years.

“Algeria is significant to (the) order because that’s where our founder, St. Augustine, was born,” said Male, who is based in Nairobi, Kenya. 

In Annaba, where the pope will say Mass on April 14, are records of Augustine’s writings and historical artifacts of Christianity in West Africa. “It’s actually a national heritage for Algeria, and (the Augustinian order) runs it on behalf of the state,” said Male. “Our friars take care of the library and public chapel and our priests have taken a leading role in the organization of the papal visit.”

The Rev. Fredrick Wekesa, rector of the 125-year-old Basilica of Augustine in Annaba, told RNS that the city’s residents are excited about the pope’s visit.  “It will be a great milestone, and also a blessing for us to welcome him in our community and basilica, and that he will celebrate Mass for us,” he said.

“That is a very, very rare opportunity for the church in Algeria. We are very few and the minority, but the Holy Father’s visit gives us a sense of solidarity with the universal church. It makes us feel closer to the universal church. We feel we are in communion,” he added.

In Cameroon, Leo will spend three days in the cities of Yaoundé, Douala and Bamenda. He will meet with the country’s president and with its Catholic bishops, visit an orphanage and participate in a community peace meeting in Bamenda, before returning to Yaoundé to meet university students and professors.

Bamenda, in Cameroon’s northwest, has been troubled in recent years as a secessionist conflict known as the Anglophone crisis or the Ambazonia war has been going on for a decade. Nearly 6,500 people have died in the conflict, amid deadly violence, abductions, disruptions in education and displacement of thousands of people from homes.

“The pope comes as a messenger of peace, an ambassador of reconciliation and promoter of justice,” Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda told Vatican News in February. 

The Rev. Augustine Ikenna Anwuchie, a Fidei Donum missionary priest in the Diocese of Maradi, in neighboring Niger, said Leo is a much needed voice for peace in the region, pointing to the pope’s first apostolic exhortation, “Dilexi Te,” which calls for commitment to social justice, compassion and solidarity. “The country bleeds as hunger and poverty increase amidst solid rich minerals,” said Anwuchie. “These are symptoms that the country is sick, a sign of deeper divide and tumult and an indication that Cameroon needs redemption.”

In Angola, besides visiting an orphanage and a nursing home, the pope will join in celebrations to mark the 450^th anniversary of Luanda, the capital. In Equatorial Guinea, he will meet cultural representatives, visit a technology school named after Pope Francis and visit a prison for a meet-and-greet.

“He wishes to advance the message of peace, by beginning with Algeria, to encourage the religious dialogue, then to go to Cameroon, to encourage and advance peace and reconciliation and peace,” said Wekesa. “In Angola and Equatorial Guinea, he will be advancing the message of social justice and peace.”