Pope Leo XIV led tens of thousands of Angolan Catholics in praying the rosary April 19 at southern Africa’s most visited Catholic shrine, calling the pilgrimage site a place where “the heart of the Church” is “alive and beating.”

María Rico ambled along a busy Buenos Aires boulevard as part of a caravan through Barrio Flores — the childhood neighbourhood of the late Pope Francis — to commemorate the first anniversary of the Argentine pontiff’s death.

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.

The world had its eyes fixed on the 10th floor of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital in 2025, waiting, hoping and praying that Pope Francis would recover.

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.

An increasing number of the nation’s young men say religion is “very important” in their lives, marking a return to levels seen 25 years ago, and edging them ahead of young women on the issue, according to Gallup.

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.”

When Pope Leo XIV was elected to the papacy on May 8, 2025, few felt the change more personally than those who had known him long before he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Time magazine has named Pope Leo XIV to its “100 Most Influential People of 2026” list.

“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.