PARK SLOPE — Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming four-nation trip to Africa is stirring hope for a religious sister in the Diocese of Brooklyn who monitors ongoing political and social strife in her native country, Cameroon.
Sister Hilda Agah, who teaches second grade at St. Saviour Catholic Academy in Park Slope, said the pontiff’s visit “is very timely and significant” for everyone back home in Cameroon. Other stops during the April 13-23 trip are slated for Algeria, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.
“The entire nation is rallying for this papal visit, with both Catholics and non-Catholics participating,” Sister Hilda told The Tablet. “I am absolutely excited, but not surprised.”
Cameroon, she added, “needs this visit more than ever before.”
An estimated one-third of Cameroon’s population is Catholic. But since 2016, the country has faced an ongoing “Anglophone” conflict between the speakers of its two languages, English and French, which has wrought political rivalries.
Priests and other members of the faith have been kidnapped and held for ransom by Anglophone separatists who favor English. Some Catholics have died in the crossfire of separatist clashes with government forces, according to reports from the U.S. State Department.
Sister Hilda’s religious community is the Franciscans of Our Lady of the Poor. She has been working in the Diocese of Brooklyn since 2017. Her hometown is Buea in southwest Cameroon, which has experienced Anglophone violence.
Konrad Tuchscherer, who specializes in African languages and history at St. John’s University, said Cameroon “represents the strength of African Catholicism, but also its challenges.”
“With a large Catholic population, it is a natural stop,” Tuchscherer said. “Yet the pope is also likely to speak to the ongoing Anglophone conflict, where the Church has been directly affected and seeks a role in peacebuilding.”
Also in Cameroon, Pope Leo will visit an orphanage and the St. Paul Catholic Hospital to promote the Church’s social work and protection for vulnerable children. He will celebrate Mass and pray for peace at an airport.
Sister Hilda said the visit is an opportune moment “for the representative of St. Peter” to promote unity, forgiveness, love, equality, and reconciliation.
“These virtues,” she added, “are essential for the world, but Cameroon particularly needs them now. We feel fortunate to be among those chosen for this visit.”
Cameroon is the second stop on this apostolic trip to Africa, which is Pope Leo’s first to the continent.
The itinerary, released by the Vatican on March 16, includes Algeria (April 13-15), Cameroon (April 15-18), Angola (April 18-21), and Equatorial Guinea (April 21-23).
Tuchscherer said these four countries reflect “the history of Catholicism in Africa and the Church’s current priorities.”
For example, he explained, “Algeria points to interreligious dialogue.”
“It is a predominantly Muslim country with a small Catholic community,” Tuchscherer said. “But it also carries the legacy of St. Augustine — especially meaningful for a pope who is himself an Augustinian.”
Pope Leo recently confirmed his excitement for the Algeria stop. “I hope to go to Algeria to visit the places connected with the life of St. Augustine,” he told reporters, adding that he plans “to continue promoting dialogue and the building of bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds.”
Less than 1% of Algeria’s population is Catholic, but the pope will meet with this community at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers, the nation’s capital city.
Across town, he will visit the Djamaa el Djazair, one of the largest Islamic places of worship in the world. He also plans to stop at the Maqam Echahid in nearby El Madania, which honors people who died during the Algerian War of Independence against France.
Tuchscherer noted that Algeria is uniquely connected to the history of Catholic missions, including the Vincentians, such as the 17th-century missionary Jean Le Vacher, who served there as vicar apostolic. Le Vacher is a candidate for sainthood following his martyrdom in 1683, in which Algerians, while battling a French invasion, strapped him to the front of a cannon and lit the fuse.
In Portuguese-speaking Angola, Pope Leo XIV will pray the rosary at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Muxima. This spot, where a church was built in 1599, became a crucial site of devotion after the 1833 Marian apparition. It is one of the most important pilgrimages in Angola, where more than 50% of the people are Catholic. “Angola highlights the deep historical roots of Catholicism in Africa,” Tuchscherer said. “Through the Kingdom of Kongo, it maintained early ties to Rome, symbolized by Antonio Manuel Ne Vunda’s 1608 embassy to the Vatican.”
Equatorial Guinea is a small nation, but nearly 90% of the people are Catholic. There, Pope Leo will meet with college students and faculty, plus a psychiatric hospital, and the infamous Bata prison, which has been criticized for its treatment of prisoners.
He will also visit a monument dedicated to victims of the accidental Bata military munitions explosions in 2021 that killed 100 people and injured 500 others.
“Equatorial Guinea underscores the Church’s moral voice in public life,” Tuchscherer said. “Despite its small size, its large Catholic population and the Church’s engagement with questions of governance make it a significant stop.”