MAPUTO, Mozambique — For a pope pulled against his will into his church’s sexual abuse maelstrom and tussles with conservative clergy, a trip to Africa that began on Wednesday may offer Francis a chance to be the pope he wanted to be.

On his return to sub-Saharan Africa, his 31st trip abroad, he finds himself on the front lines of poverty, climate change and migration — his signature issues — while emphasizing Africa’s centrality to the future of the church.

His arrival on Wednesday evening in Mozambique, which will be followed by stops in two island nations off its coast — Madagascar and Mauritius — will provide a sort of thematic homecoming for a pope who has prioritized what his Jesuit religious order calls the global “peripheries.”