The Holy Father has already visited Algeria, Cameroon, and Angola as part of his papal visit to the continent.
Pope Leo XIV listens during a meeting with civil leaders at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV met with civic leaders and cultural stewards in Equatorial Guinea on April 21, coming to the coastal African nation after traveling across much of the continent during his first papal visit there.
The Holy Fatherʼs two-day stay in Equatorial Guinea will cap his visit to Africa, during which he has visited and toured Algeria, Cameroon, and Angola.
During his first day in Equatorial Guinea, Leo met with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo along with civil leaders and the countryʼs diplomatic corps.
He also visited with cultural leaders and with staff and patients at a psychiatric hospital in Malabo.
Hereʼs a look at Leoʼs activities during his first day in Equatorial Guinea:
Pope Leo XIV waves as he departs Angola at Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV greets Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo upon his arrival in the country on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV is greeted as he arrives in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV waves to crowds after arriving in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV receives gifts during his meeting with Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo at the presidential palace in Malabo on April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV and Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo speak at the country’s presidential palace on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV meets with Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo at the presidential palace in Malabo on April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV greets crowds as he walks through Malabo in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV greets crowds as he walks through Malabo in Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV speaks to civil leaders at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV prays at St. Elizabeth Cathedral in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd during a meeting with the World of Culture at the León XIV Campus of the National University, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with the World of Culture at the León XIV Campus of the National University in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV waves to crowds during a meeting with the World of Culture at the León XIV Campus of the National University in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV speaks at the Jean Pierre Olie Psychiatric Hospital in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV views a plaque underneath a statue in his honor during a meeting with the World of Culture at the León XIV Campus of the National University in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV greets crowds at the Jean Pierre Olie Psychiatric Hospital in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
Pope Leo XIV greets an official at the Jean Pierre Olie Psychiatric Hospital in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media
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Vatican City, Jul 16, 2018 / 11:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a message to Antillean youth, Pope Francis said love is the core of the Church’s doctrine on the family, which is something every young person is responsible for carrying forward.
To understand what this love means, the pope urged young people to both read and study chapter four of his 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, which is dedicated to “Love in Marriage.”
“I tell you that the core of Amoris Laetitia was chapter four. How to live love. How to live love in the family,” he said, and told youth to read and talk about the chapter with each other, because “there is a lot of strength here to continue going forward” and to transform family life.
Love “has its own strength. And love never ends,” he said, explaining that if they learn how to truly love as God taught, “you will be transforming something that is for all of eternity.”
Pope Francis sent a video message to participants in the youth assembly of the Antilles Bishops Conference, which is taking place in the Archdiocese of Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-France, in Martinique, from July 10-23.
In his message, the pope asked youth whether they were really living as young people, or if they had become “aged youth,” because “if you are aged young people you are not going to do anything. You have to be youth who are young, with all the strength that youth has to transform.”
He said young people should not be “settled” in life, because being “settled” means one is at a standstill and “things don’t go forward.”
“You have to un-stall what has been stalled and start to fight,” the pope said. “You want to transform, you want to carry forward and you have made your own the directives of the post-synodal exhortation on the family in order to carry the family forward and transform the family of the Caribbean,” he said.
In order to promote and carry the family forward, one must understand both the present and the past, Pope Francis said.
“You are preparing to transform something that has been given to you by your elders. You have received the history of yesterday, the traditions of yesterday,” he said, adding that people “cannot do anything in the present nor the future if you are not rooted in the past, in your history, in your culture, in your family; if you do not have roots that are well grounded.”
To this end, he told youth to spend time with their grandparents and other elderly people, and to take what they lean and “carry it forward.”
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Beautiful pictures. God bless Equatorial Guinea and the dwellers there with peace, justice, dignity and wisdom.