10 countries Pope Leo XIV visited before becoming pope

Rome Newsroom, May 12, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV traveled to several countries as prior general of the Order of St. Augustine between 2001 and 2013 and also as a member of the Roman Curia since 2019. 

Below are some of the countries (in alphabetical order) the Chicago-born pope has visited — or where he has been based for pastoral reasons — outside of the U.S. in the last three decades.

Australia

As prior general of the Augustinians, Pope Leo XIV visited Australia in 2002 and 2005. 

In 2002, he visited the order’s Villanova College in Queensland’s capital city of Brisbane. In 2005, he traveled to New South Wales to visit his confreres and celebrate Mass in Holy Spirit Parish — whose pastoral care is entrusted to the Augustinians — in western Sydney.    

Democratic Republic of Congo

In 2009, Pope Leo inaugurated the Augustinian university in the country’s capital of Kinshasa, where he spoke about the importance of education and also met with families and communities in war-torn villages. He also visited his confreres in the Bas-Uélé province in the same year.  

India  

Pope Leo XIV traveled twice to India, in 2004 and 2006, when he was prior general of the Augustinians, visiting communities in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In 2004, he concelebrated the priestly ordination of six deacons belonging to his order in St. Francis Xavier Church in Kerala — the state where a significant number of Indian Catholics belonging to the Syro-Malabar Church live.

Indonesia

In 2003, Pope Leo XIV traveled to Papua, Indonesia, to celebrate an anniversary of the Order of St. Augustine in the Diocese of Sorong in Jayapura. During this stay, the former head of the Augustinians listened to the plight of those faced with armed conflict and civil unrest in the Papua region.

Kenya 

Pope Leo XIV was in Kenya in 2011, 2024, and 2025. In his 2024 visit to the African nation, the then-cardinal presided over the consecration and dedication of the chapel at Augustinian International House of Theology in Nairobi, reminding his listeners that the new church is “built on the rock which is our faith” and the need for each and every Catholic to “live in unity.”

Nigeria 

The Nigeria Catholic Network reported that Pope Leo has visited the African country at least nine times between 2001 and 2016, participating in a number of meetings in Abuja and beyond in order to establish and consolidate the Augustinian order’s Nigeria province. 

Peru 

Pope Leo was sent on mission in 1985 as a newly-ordained priest to Peru, where he was made the local prior for his religious community. Throughout the 1990s, he served the Catholic faithful in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar and as a professor of canon law, patristics, and moral theology at the San Carlo and San Marcello seminary college.   

He returned to Peru in November 2014, after being in Chicago and Rome between 1999 and 2014, having been appointed by Pope Francis head the Diocese of Chiclayo. In 2020, he was also appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao. He remained in Peru until 2023 when he was called by the pope to work for the Roman Curia and eventually made a cardinal.  

Philippines

Pope Leo has made several visits to the Philippines — in 2002, 2010, and 2012 — as the prior general of the Augustinians. During one of his visits, the pope visited the country’s oldest church, the Santo Niño Basilica, in Cebu, which houses the renowned shrine of the Child Jesus. The Order of St. Augustine is recognized as the first group of missionaries who effectively helped establish Catholicism as the main religion on the Asian archipelago.   

South Korea

Augustinians in the Asia Pacific helped to establish their community in South Korea in 1985.  While still a newly-ordained priest and young missionary, Pope Leo took a flight to the Asian nation, though he was on holiday, to support his brothers when they were having difficulty setting up the mission in the country, Father John Sullivan, OSA, told The Catholic Leader.

Tanzania 

Pope Leo has visited the African nation of Tanzania more than five times. Tanzania’s national newspaper Daily News reported that the newly-elected pontiff had traveled to several places — even undertaking an approximately 468-mile road trip from Songea to Morogoro. 

“We got into the same car [in Songea], which he drove himself, and went to Morogoro, where he received the perpetual vows of three of our sisters (nuns) on Aug. 28, 2003,” Bishop Stephano Musomba told Daily News.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/264049/10-countries-pope-leo-xiv-visited-before-becoming-pope