New Delhi, April 13 -- Pope Leo XIV is embarking Monday on the first-ever papal trip to Algeria, aiming to promote Christian-Muslim coexistence at a time of global conflict and honor the locally born inspiration of his religious spirituality, St. Augustine.

Leo's two-day stop in Algeria opens an intense 11-day tour of four African nations - Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea - that will bring history's first U.S.-born pope deep into the growing heart of the Catholic Church.

The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran cast a cloud over the trip, after President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary broadside against Leo on Sunday night, saying he should "stop catering to the Radical Left." Leo had blasted the "delusion of omnipotence" ...