Overview
- Pope Léon XIV, who ended the 11-day trip Thursday, returned to Rome after celebrating an open-air mass in Malabo.
- On the flight home, he said countries have a legitimate right to set border rules, marking a return to the Church’s traditional teaching on migration.
- A tightly managed visit to Bata prison Wednesday saw about 600 detainees chant “Libertad” as he told them “You are not alone.”
- Across Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, he condemned tyranny, corruption and resource plunder and urged wider civic freedoms and respect for human dignity.
- The stop has refocused scrutiny on Equatorial Guinea’s overcrowded prisons and deep inequality under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, with no changes announced by authorities.