CT News
April 18, 2026 : Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for 120,000 people in Douala, the country’s economic hub on April 17. In his homily, the Pope said that Jesus encourages us to “look at all these hungry people, weighed down by fatigue”, and asks each one of us a question: “What will you do?”.
Almost 40 percent of Cameroon’s population lives below the poverty line, and the Red Cross said in February that 3.3 million were suffering from hunger.
In his homily, the Pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading, which narrates the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.
Faced with the hunger of the crowds, Pope Leo said, Jesus asked his disciples how they would solve the problem – a question he today poses “to each one of us”. In the end, he emphasised, the crowd is fed through a gesture of sharing – a reminder that “there is bread for everyone if it is given to everyone.”
Nobody will go hungry, the Pope told the roughly 120,000 people in attendance, if food “is taken, not with a hand that snatches away, but with a hand that gives.”
After Mass, the Pope paid a private visit to a Catholic hospital, before returning to Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital city, for a visit to the Catholic University of Central Africa. There, he delivered an in-depth reflection on the meaning of higher education, suggesting university students to cultivate “holy restlessness”.
After returning to the Apostolic Nunciature, where he is staying, Pope Leo met with a group of nine religious women and men, representing the more than 250 religious institutes and congregations active in Cameroon.
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