Courtney Mares

When Robert Francis Prevost stepped onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica one year ago May 8, he carried with him a piece of paper on which he had carefully written the first words he would utter as Pope Leo XIV. His first speech was, in ways that would only become clear over the year that followed, a preview of what was to come.

Flying over the west coast of central Africa on April 21, Pope Leo XIV paused to honor his predecessor on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ death, remembering the Argentine pope’s witness to mercy and closeness to the poor.

Pope Leo XIV traveled to the heart of Angola’s diamond country April 20, urging the tens of thousands gathered at the papal Mass in the country’s northeast to trust that “Christ hears the cry of the people” in the face of evil.

Pope Leo XIV celebrated an outdoor Mass for an estimated 100,000 Catholics in Angola on Sunday, April 19, urging the faithful of a nation still bearing the scars of a decades-long civil war to find renewed hope in the Eucharist and the Risen Christ.

Pope Leo XIV touched down in the Angolan capital of Luanda on Saturday, April 18, beginning a three-day visit to the southern African country that is home to 20 million Catholics.