Pope Leo feud with Trump overshadows his spiritual homecoming

ANNABA, Algeria — Pope Leo XIV came to North Africa to honor his spiritual forefather, St. Augustine, who preached that war was only justified to protect the innocent.

So perhaps it’s fitting the visit has been overshadowed by his escalating feud with President Donald Trump over the first American pontiff’s criticism of the war with Iran.

Even when not mentioning Trump directly, Leo’s remarks during this 11-day African trip have been given a different meaning amid his public disagreement with the president.

“God’s heart is torn apart by wars, violence, injustice and lies,” he said Tuesday on a visit to a care home in the Algerian port city of Annaba. “But our Father’s heart is not with the wicked, the arrogant or the proud.”

Pope Leo XIV visits the nursing home of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Annaba, Algeria on Tuesday.

The pope arrived in Algeria on Monday, the first visit to the country by a sitting pontiff.

On Wednesday, he was flying to Cameroon, where separatists announced a three-day pause in deadly violence to allow Leo safe passage to a “peace meeting” Thursday.

From Cameroon, he will go to Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

The Algerian leg was a religious homecoming.

Leo is a member of the Order of St. Augustine, which was founded on the teachings of the 5th-century saint who lived and studied in the Roman city of Hippo, modern-day Annaba.

Leo took a pilgrimage to those ruins Tuesday, arriving during a rainstorm with sharpshooters covering the ancient flagstones and colonnades. He prayed in a tent overlooking its theater, market and basilica where Augustine preached. And he planted an olive tree and watched as white doves were released.

This was meant to be a deeply personal, “very special trip” for the pontiff, as he put it aboard the papal plane while en route to Algeria.

After being chosen at the Vatican Conclave last May, he declared himself a “son of St. Augustine” and he has visited this pilgrimage site twice before, while he was superior of the Augustinian order.

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