His choice to prioritize the important trip to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea is related to the fact that the future of Christianity is being played on the continent with Catholic and Protestant competition. About 280 million live in Africa, which corresponds to 1/5 of Africans, but also to 1/5 of Catholics worldwide. It is also the continent where Catholicism is spreading at the fastest rates, with Protestant Evangelicals and Pentecostals as their main competitors. This fact is not yet adequately reflected in the body of cardinals, which numbers only 14 Africans. Especially in Cameroon, which was visited by Pope Leocoming from Algeria, the Catholics number 8 million which corresponds to almost 1/3 of the population.
Criticism of President Biya or his legitimation?
In the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé, Pope Leo spoke at the presidential palace, emphasizing the importance of the rule of law and transparency in institutions. Many saw these points of speech as an attack against the President Paul Biyawho at the age of 93 is the oldest head of state in the world: He has ruled the country since 1982 for 44 years, having served for another 7 years as prime minister (1975-1982). In the last election there were strong protests about fraud. Recently, President Biya pushed for a change in the Constitution and created the position of vice-president, which he would probably like to see his son in with the prospect of future succession. Biya is working with US President Donald Trump, having agreed to accept deported migrants.
In his speech, Pope Leo, who before rising to the highest office had been the head of the Augustinian order, drew on the political theology of the sanctuary Augustin Ipponos (354-430). According to the latter, power should be based on a sense of duty and duty, not on philanthropy but on mercy. In fact, the choice of Pope Leo to visit Cameroon and northern Mediterranean Africa before, and more specifically Algeria, is also connected with the respect for Saint Augustine who worked in these places.
Crucial to the timing of the visit is that Cameroon is split between the larger French-speaking and the smaller English-speaking part, and Pope Leo made sure to visit both by going to Bamenda, the most important city in the English-speaking part, which is under martial law as there is a separatist movement, and many Anglophone activists remain imprisoned.
The political life of Cameroon is currently shaken by this separatist movement of the English-speaking provinces, which is allegedly supported by South Africa, but also by the USA. Pope Leo’s visit to Bamenda with a message of “one voice for the people, one message for the world” comes at a critical political turning point. Many see the Pope’s visit as a legitimization of the 93-year-old president at a time when he is hotly contested by his re-election in 2025 at the record age of 92, and by a separatist movement in an oil-rich region.
Pope Leo certainly did not fail to make an indirect but clear criticism of President Biya speaking against the entanglement. But just his presence in the presidential palace is considered as support. After all, three minutes of the Pope’s controversial statements on corruption were not broadcast by state television as the sound was suspiciously cut off at that point. In short, the presence of Pope Leo appeared as an elaborate tightrope walk with criticism of President Biya, but indirect support for him on the burning issue of maintaining the unity of the country under his rule and not dividing it.
Against the “idolatry of profit”
Pope Leo has been much clearer about his ecumenical messages, continuing his “beef” with President Trump with “indefinitely,” if the feud between the men who hold two of the most important institutional positions on the planet can be described in online terms. Pope Leo insisted on the priority of peace, stating that “the world thirsts for peace.” He emphasized that peace is a gift from God, but also the responsibility of the rulers, while he argued that love for one’s neighbor also has a political dimension.
In his speech, the Pope emphasized care for the most vulnerable and spoke at length about young people, stressing the need to overcome the problems of unemployment, which pushes young people to migrate, as well as drugs and prostitution. In addition to the importance of peace, Pope Leo has been particularly critical of what he called the “idolatry of profit” in which he opposed the real wealth that is the youth of Cameroon, as the vanguard of a dynamic society
THE Thanasis Papathanasiouprofessor of Missions at the Supreme Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens and editor-in-chief of the magazine “Synaxis”, which devoted itself to the “global south”, analyzing the religious and geopolitical significance of the opposition between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in Africa in this critical period, speaks in “Vima” about the meaning of Pope Leo’s relative insistence: “The Protestantism functions as an “umbrella” that covers very different movements and confessions. Catholics, on the other hand, have a stricter church structure. In Africa, the cauldron is creatively boiling and significant efforts are being made to reformulate the Christian faith in the ways of indigenous cultures and with African conceptual tools. In Protestantism, there are forces that open up creatively to local cultures, and that is why they spread rapidly. However, there is also a trend that views human civilization with suspicion, as an event of “fall” or dominance of demonic forces”.
“Prosperity Gospel” versus “Liberation Theology”
“The real conflict of Roman Catholicism,” continues Thanasis Papathanasiou, “is with the so-called Prosperity Gospel.” This current is an amalgam of African indigenous data and American neo-Pentecostalism, emphasizing health and economic prosperity in the here and now. The Prosperity Gospel claims that economic success is evidence of God’s favor, while poverty or disease is the fault of humans themselves because of their sins. In this perspective, there is no social injustice or exclusion due to socio-economic system, but the poor themselves are blamed.
The Roman Catholic church opposes this, clarifying theologically that a “gospel” that bypasses the Cross of Christ and the reality of injustice cannot be accepted. In this context we can see Pope Leo’s statements in Cameroon about the “idolatry of profit”. However, there is also the dimension of opposition to the Trump administration. The Pope has pointed out the narcissism and self-idolization of power. Speaking in Africa, he also indirectly touches the American reality, where in the neo-evangelical circles of the USA, theological inventions are employed to support the messianic role of the mighty one who will crush the opponents. The Pope reminds us that in the Christian faith, power is not the power of imposition, but the power of martyrs in weakness, an attitude of “civil disobedience” without recourse to violence.
Beyond the personal “beef” there is, therefore, a conflict of two different models for the future of Christianity in Africa, the youngest continent, which will also determine the form that the Christian religion will take in the 21st century.the century. The Pope’s fight against the “pagans of profit” will continue in Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
