Josephine Peterson

One year after stepping onto the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and greeting the world with the words, “May peace be with you all,” Pope Leo XIV has emerged as a pontiff attempting to guide a polarized church and fractured world through dialogue, peace and increasingly forceful speech defending human dignity.

In the final leg of his apostolic journey to Africa, Pope Leo XIV struck a more measured tone, delivering a message to the faithful while navigating one of the continent’s most politically sensitive environments.

“The voices in the bushes.” That is the fear that defines daily life for many residents of this city in Cameroon’s troubled Anglophone region.

Laypeople are not passive members but active participants in the Church’s mission, called to live and spread the Gospel in everyday life, Pope Leo XIV said.