ON BOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Leo XIV, en route from Algeria to Cameroon on Wednesday, pointed to Saint Augustine and his emphasis on unity and harmony as a guide for contemporary society.

Speaking to the international press corps traveling with him during his 11-day tour of Africa, the pope, on his April 15 flight from Algiers to Yaoundé, thanked the nation’s small Catholic minority and authorities for their welcome, calling the visit “very blessed.”

“We had, as you know, some very special visits both in the Basilica of Notre Dame d’Afrique, as well as in Annaba yesterday in the Basilica of Saint Augustine,” he said, noting that the basilica sits atop a hill overlooking both the modern city of Annaba, as well as the ruins of the Roman city of Hippona Regis.

This in itself is “symbolically significant,” he said, as Saint Augustine, who served as bishop of Hippo for over 30 years, “is a figure which is very much from the past; he speaks to us of tradition, he speaks to us of life, the church as the church grew in the early centuries, and he’s still a very important figure today.”

Augustine’s writings, teaching, and spirituality offer an invitation “to search for God and to search for truth,” which he said is something “that is very much needed today and a message that is very real for all of us today as believers in Jesus Christ, but for all people.”

Pope Leo, who was visibly moved during his visits both to the archeological site of Hippo as well as his celebration of Mass in the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Annaba on Tuesday, noted that the founder of his Augustinian religious order is revered by both Christians and Muslims in Algeria, where Muslims make up around 99 percent of the population.

“It was a special blessing for me personally to return once again to Annaba yesterday, but also to offer to the church and to the world a vision that Saint Augustine offers us in terms of the search for God and the struggle to build community, to seek for unity among all peoples and respect for all peoples in spite of their differences,” he said.

Having spent two days in Algeria, which at the beginning of his Africa odyssey Leo said was intended to be the first trip of his papacy, he said the brief visit was “a wonderful opportunity to continue to build bridges, to promote dialogue.”

To this end, he recalled his visit to Algeria’s Grand Mosque as a statement that “although we have different beliefs, we have different ways of worshipping, different ways of living, we can live together in peace.”

“I think that to promote that kind of image is something which the world needs to hear today and that together we can continue to offer in our witness as we continue on this apostolic voyage,” he said.

Pope Leo, who on the day of his election declared himself a “son of Augustine,” had previously visited Algeria twice – beginning his mandate as prior general of the Augustinian Order with a visit there in 2001 and ending it with a second visit in 2013.

His visit this week marked the first-ever papal visit to Algeria and, by extension, to the land of Saint Augustine, as history’s first-ever Augustinian pope.

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