NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to travel to Africa, its Catholic leaders are underlining the significance of the visit to the continent, where Christianity is on an upsurge.

Leo will visit Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea from April 13-23. It will be his third foreign trip since being elected in May of last year, after his November visit to Turkey, where he marked the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, and his upcoming one-day visit on March 28 to Monaco, the world’s second smallest state after the Vatican.

The African visit will begin in Algeria, where the pope will tour the Great Mosque of Algiers, the world’s largest Islamic house of worship, and address Algerians from the city’s Catholic cathedral.…