Pope Leo XIV delivered a forceful appeal for peace and condemned what he described as “a handful of tyrants” who are ravaging the world, in a speech on Thursday during a trip to four countries in Africa.
Leo’s speech, delivered in northwestern Cameroon, came days after President Donald Trump sharply criticized the first U.S.-born pontiff in posts to social media. He also posted an apparently AI-generated image, later deleted, depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure.
Leo did not name Trump during his comments in Cameroon, which he was visiting as part of a 10-day tour. The early days of Leo’s papacy have been punctuated by divergences between the Vatican and Trump, with the Chicago-born pontiff becoming increasingly vocal about the U.S. administration’s use of force overseas, its migrant policy at home and what the Vatican sees as a troubling fusion of God and politics.
After Trump posted an online broadsideagainst Leo on Sunday — labeling him “WEAK on crime” and “terrible for Foreign Policy” — Leo responded that he had “no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel.”
During the speech in Cameroon, Leo sharply condemned those “who manipulate religion in the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” Leo was speaking in Bamenda, a city in the northwestern part of the country that is considered the center of its long-running separatist movement.
“The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy,” Leo said, adding that they do not acknowledge that it often takes more than “a lifetime” to rebuild. “They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing, on devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
Echoing comments made by his predecessor Pope Francis, who had sharply condemned the legacy of colonialism in Africa, Leo told Cameroonians that many of the same people who rob “your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons,” creating a cycle of violence.
He celebrated the efforts of religious leaders in Bamenda to bring peace to the region. In northwest Cameroon, English-speaking separatists have declared a breakaway state called Ambazonia after what they say is decades of repression by the Francophone-dominated Cameroonian government. In what is seen as a breakthrough, the rebel leadership has declared a halt in fighting for the papal trip, if not a formal ceasefire.
The pope began his Africa trip in Algeria. After Cameroon, he is set to visit Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
On Wednesday, Leo met with Cameroonian President Paul Biya — who at 93 is the world’s oldest president and an authoritarian ruler who has accumulated substantial wealth over four decades in office, sharply limited free speech and repressed the opposition, including during protests after a contested election last year.
Leo, whose meeting with Biya had been criticized by some in the opposition, addressed some of the concerns, calling on authorities to act as “bridges, never as sources of division,” and to ensure that security measures always respect human rights.
He also warned against corruption, describing it as a force that “disfigures authority and strips it of its credibility.”
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting space dedicated to peace in Bamenda, Leo said that leaders from various religions who had united to search for peace should be a model for the world.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” he said, “yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.”
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