From the Principality of Monaco to Africa to Spain: after the Jubilee, Leo XIV inaugurates his traveling season
With the arrival of spring, Leo XIV decided to emerge from the “Jubilee and post-Jubilee hibernation”. The Pope will now travel the world. Europe, Africa and then Europe again. Touch and run to the Principality of Monaco on March 28, where he finally succumbed to the increasingly pressing calls of the Monegasque institutions. An African April, from the 13th to the 23rd, in which he will do a kind of en plein with Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. Finally, it will move again to the Mediterranean area, from 6 to 12 June, with a visit to Spain.
Leo XIV in Monte Carlo
If we think of the Principality of Monaco, the first things that come to mind are the Monte Carlo Casino (perhaps the most renowned in the world) and the Formula 1 Grand Prix, in one of the most legendary and evocative circuits. Yet, we are talking about a city-state in which the bond with the Pope and the Christian religion are particularly strong – let’s remember the repeated invitations from Prince Albert not only to Leone, but also to his predecessor Francis. Here, in fact, the relationship between civil institutions and the Church is still particularly relevant in public debate, as it has been in the rest of Europe for centuries (or rather, millennia). Now (alas), the crisis of the Christian religion in the Old Continent has made such a theme apparently anachronistic and insignificant, but that is another story, and we will not deal with it today.
The fact is that on March 28 the Pontiff will be visiting the Principality, probably also convinced by the proverbial commitment that this tiny state has always made for peace. The peculiarity of this visit lies in the fact that it is the first time for a Pope in Monaco, at least in the modern era.
Other trips planned
However, the most awaited trip is perhaps the one to Algeria. A journey that could almost be defined as sentimental, because it actually represents a tribute to the memory of Saint Augustine (native of the ancient North African city of Hippo, today Annaba), a figure to whom Leo XIV is closely linked. The stops in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea were carefully chosen to demonstrate the singular attention that the Pope reserves for the poorest and for peace – a civil war has been underway in Cameroon for ten years. The pilgrimage comes close to the formidable record of John Paul II, who in 1985 visited 7 African nations in just 11 days.
The return to Europe is inextricably marked by the visit to Spain, from 6 to 12 June. Here, the Pontiff will travel to Madrid and above all to Barcelona, where he will inaugurate the new imposing tower of the Sagrada Familia. The date is not coincidental: it is the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudì, the visionary architect who built the Art Nouveau basilica, as we know it today, transforming the initial neo-Gothic project. In short, once the sedentary period ended after the diplomatic trip to the Middle East at the end of last year, the itinerant era of Leo XIV began.
