Pope Leo departs from Cameroon, says his remarks there did not refer to President Trump
April 18, 2026
Following a farewell ceremony at Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport (video), Pope Leo departed from Cameroon for Angola this afternoon.
Addressing journalists on the plane, Pope Leo said that “I primarily come to Africa as a pastor, as the head of the Catholic Church, to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany all of the Catholics throughout Africa.”
“And yet there are, of course, other dimensions to the visit,” he continued. “I had a very fine meeting with a group of Imams in Cameroon to promote—continue to promote, as we have done in other places already and as Pope Francis has done during his pontificate—the dialogue, promotion of fraternity, through understanding, acceptance, peace-building with people of all faiths.”
Commenting on an inaccurate “narrative” about himself and President Trump, the Pope said:
At the same time, there has been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects, but 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.
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.
“So we go on the journey, we continue proclaiming the Gospel message, and the text of the Gospel we have been using for the liturgies give a number of different, fantastic, beautiful aspects of what it is about to be Christian, of what it is about to follow Christ, of what it is about to promote fraternity, brotherhood, trusting in the Lord, but also looking for ways to promote justice in our world, promote peace in our world,” the Pope added,
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