ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV pushed back against the media narrative that has pitted him against President Donald Trump since the start of his 11-day apostolic journey to Africa, telling journalists aboard the papal flight to Angola April 18 that “there has been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all its aspects.”
“Because of the political situation created when on the first day of the trip, the President of the United States made some comments about myself, much of what has been written since then has been more commentary on commentary trying to interpret what has been said,” Pope Leo said aboard the papal flight from Yaoundé, Cameroon, to Luanda, Angola.
“Just one little example: The talk that I gave at the prayer meeting for peace a couple of days ago was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting. And yet as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate, again, the president, which is not in my interest at all,” he said.
The pope underlined to the roughly 65 journalists aboard the papal plane, including major TV networks and newspapers from around the world, “I primarily come to Africa as a pastor, as the head of the Catholic Church to be with and to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany, all of the Catholics throughout Africa.”
Pope Leo was speaking in response to the media storm in the United States with a narrative of “Trump versus Leo” ever since the U.S. president lashed out at the pope on social media and in verbal remarks over the pontiff’s opposition to the Iran war over the course of several days starting April 12.
As the pope visited both Algeria and Cameroon over the past six days, the story continued to evolve as Vice President JD Vance spoke at an April 14 Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, during which he invoked “the more than 1,000-year tradition of Just War theory” in justifying his opposition to the pope’s comments objecting to the Iran war.
As Pope Leo presided over a peace meeting in Bamenda, Cameroon, which has been afflicted by violence in a conflict between separatists and government forces since 2017, some media outlets ran headlines that made it appear as if Pope Leo’s comments to the suffering Cameroonian community were directed at Trump.
Reuters reported on the pope’s peace event, “Pope Leo blasted leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was ‘being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’, in unusually forceful remarks in ?Cameroon on Thursday days after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked him on social media.”
The New York Times ran the headline about the same peace meeting on April 16, “‘Woe to Those Who Manipulate Religion,’ Pope Says Amid Standoff With Trump.'”
The article stated, “Amid a growing dispute with the Trump administration over the legitimacy of American attacks in Iran, Leo used a speech on Thursday in Cameroon to express ‘woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.'”
Pope Leo clarified to journalists aboard the papal plane that his speeches were written two weeks ago, long before Trump’s comments.
The pope made these strong comments about tyrants and manipulating religion in a speech in the heart of a conflict zone in Bamenda, Cameroon, where the pope sought to bring the world’s attention to the Anglophone crisis, which was described by one of the local participants in the peace meeting as “one of the forgotten crises on the planet earth.”
In Pope Leo’s remarks aboard the plane, he tried to put the focus back on the Cameroonian people.
“The visit in Cameroon was very significant because in many ways it represents the heart of Africa in many different ways,” he said. “They are English-speaking and French-speaking, around 250 local languages and (ethnicities). At the same time it has great wealth and great opportunity, but also the difficulty that we find throughout Africa of many times an unequal distribution of wealth.”
“We go on the journey, we continue proclaiming the Gospel message. The texts of the Gospels that we have been using for the liturgies give a number of different fantastic, beautiful aspects of what it’s about to be Christian, of what it’s about to follow Christ, of what it’s about to promote fraternity and brotherhood, trusting in the Lord, but also looking for ways to promote justice in our world, to promote peace in our world,” the pope added.
Before taking off for Angola, Pope Leo offered Mass in Cameroon’s capital with an estimated 200,000 people at Yaoundé air base, according to local authorities.
“Jesus is with us always, stronger than any power of evil,” the pope told a joyful crowd of Cameroonian Catholics.
In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the Gospel account of Jesus walking on water, saying, “In every storm, (Jesus) comes to us and repeats: ‘I am here with you: Do not be afraid.'”
“Jesus draws near to us. He does not immediately calm the storm, but comes to us in the midst of the danger, and invites us, in our joys and sorrows, to remain together with him, like the disciples, in the same boat. He invites us not to distance ourselves from those who suffer, but to draw near to them, to embrace them,” the pope said in French.
The lively Mass concluded the pope’s April 15-18 trip to Cameroon, where he visited three cities: Yaoundé, Bamenda and Douala. Pope Leo’s second half of his 11-day Africa tour will bring him to Angola and Equatorial Guinea before returning to the Vatican April 23.
“Let us keep the memory of the beautiful moments that we have experienced together alive in our hearts,” Pope Leo said at the end of his homily. “Even in the midst of difficulties, let us continue to make space for Jesus, allowing him to enlighten and renew us every day by his presence. The Church in Cameroon is alive, young, blessed with gifts and enthusiasm, energetic in its variety and magnificent in its harmony. With the help of the Virgin Mary, our Mother, may your joyful presence continue to blossom.”
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