DOUALA, Cameroon (AP) — Pope Leo XIV used a Mass in Cameroon on Friday to tell young people to resist migration, stay put, and work for the common good at home, while urging them to become morally upright citizens in a country where corruption and elite rule have hollowed out opportunity for ordinary people.
The Vatican had expected as many as 600,000 people to attend the Mass in the port city of Douala, Cameroon’s financial and economic hub, but only around 120,000 made it. Cameroonian organizers said security limitations and closed roads may have kept many people from reaching the field, which was located well outside town next to the Japoma sports stadium. Some of those who did arrive spent the night on the ground, battling mosquitoes, just to be present for a religious spectacle staged under the usual controls of access and order.
Who Pays for the System
Leo highlighted two of the big problems facing the continent during the Mass and a meeting with students and faculty at the Catholic University of Central Africa: corruption that keeps countries in poverty and the brain drain of their brightest children who leave rather than fight the corruption at home. He said, “Africa, indeed, must be freed from the scourge of corruption.” He also said, “The greatness of a nation cannot be measured solely by the abundance of its natural resources, nor even by the material wealth of its institutions.”
He added, “No society, in fact, can flourish unless it is grounded in upright consciences, formed in the truth.” The phrasing is neat enough for a sermon, but the material reality in Cameroon is less poetic: young people are told to be virtuous while the structures that keep wealth and power concentrated remain intact.
Alex Nzumo, who arrived at the Mass on crutches, said, “I wanted to offer this effort to the pope, to show him that what he is doing and what he wants to accomplish should truly come to life.” That is the closest thing in the article to direct action from below: a person making the effort to show up, physically, despite the obstacles and discomfort.
Youth Told to Stay, Elites Stay in Place
In his homily, delivered in French and English, Leo urged young people to look beyond the poverty and disillusionment many experience and instead look to the future with hope. He said, “Do not give in to distrust and discouragement.” He also said, “Do not forget that your people are even richer than this land, for your treasure lies in your values: faith, family, hospitality and work.”
He later told students at the university to resist the temptation to leave and instead use their educations to improve life for themselves and their fellow citizens at home. He said, “In the face of the understandable tendency to migrate — which may lead one to believe that elsewhere a better future may be more easily found — I invite you, first and foremost, to respond with an ardent desire to serve your country and to apply the knowledge you are acquiring here to the benefit of your fellow citizens.”
The message lands in a country of 29 million people where the median age is 18, Catholics make up about 29% of the population, and the church remains a major source of growth and priestly vocations. Cameroon is also an oil-producing country experiencing modest economic growth, yet young people say the benefits have not trickled down beyond the elites. The hierarchy keeps the spoils; the young are asked to be patient.
What the Numbers Say
According to World Bank data, the unemployment rate in Cameroon stands at 3.5%, but 57% of the labor force aged 18 to 35 works in informal employment. That is the real labor market for most young people: precarious work, no security, and a future shaped by the decisions of people far above them.
The dire economic outlook has led to significant brain drain and strained an already understaffed health sector, as many doctors and nurses leave for more lucrative jobs in Europe and North America. In 2023, about a third of trained doctors who graduate from medical school in Cameroon left the country, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.
Leo had already offered words of encouragement to Cameroon’s youth, including in his opening speech to Biya, in which he demanded the “chains of corruption” in Cameroon be broken. But with Biya entrenched in power, Cameroon stands as a stark example of the tension between Africa’s youth and the continent’s many aging leaders.
At the university, Leo also warned that one of the most pressing issues students must address is the advance of artificial intelligence and how it is altering the relationship of people with the truth. He said, “What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.”
Meanwhile, the field in Douala filled with singing, swaying and dancing as an announcer shouted “Habemus Papam!” — a phrase used to announce the election of a new pope, here repurposed to celebrate Leo’s arrival. Young people ran to keep up with his popemobile as it looped through the crowds, a moving pageant of authority, devotion and managed participation.