Pope Leo praises witness of Algeria’s Christian martyrs at meeting with local Catholics

ALGIERS (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV honored the memory of Algeria’s Christian martyrs Monday evening, telling the country’s tiny Catholic community that the blood of those who died for their faith remains “a living seed that never ceases to bear fruit.”

Speaking inside the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, a 19th-century church perched on a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the city of Algiers, the pope praised the 19 men and women religious beatified in 2018 who were killed during the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s.

“It is precisely love for their brothers and sisters that inspired the witness of the martyrs we have commemorated,” the pope said. “In the face of hatred and violence, they remained faithful to charity even to the point of sacrificing themselves alongside many other men and women, Christians and Muslims.”

The visit marks a remarkable moment for the North African country in which Catholics number fewer than 9,000 in a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation of more than 45 million people. Pope Leo described the Church’s role in Algeria as a “discrete and precious presence.”

Outside the basilica in heavy rain was a 19-year-old Catholic convert who shared with OSV News how he was raised in a Muslim family, but was baptized in 2024 despite his family’s opposition. Speaking under the condition of anonymity, he said that he was inspired by the miracles of the Church, in particular the Marian apparition of Our Lady of Zeitoun in Egypt. As an active member of the local Catholic community, he volunteered to help with the pope’s visit.

Prior to his arrival at the basilica, the pope visited the Great Mosque of Algiers. “Through this place of prayer, through the search for truth, including through study and through the ability to recognize the dignity of every human being, we know — and today’s gathering is proof of this — that we can learn to respect one another, live in harmony and build a world of peace,” he remarked spontaneously in Italian.

Inside the basilica, Pope Leo sat under the apse mosaic with a French inscription that translates, “Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims.”

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, archbishop of Algiers, told the pope that the vast majority of people who cross the basilica’s threshold are Muslim.

“‘Madame l’Afrique,’ as she is often called here, is inscribed in the heritage of Algeria and in the hearts of Algerians,” the cardinal said in French. “The inscription that welcomes them, ‘pray for us and for the Muslims,’ ??expresses Mary’s maternal vocation for all humanity, and the vocation of this basilica, which hosts so many cultural and religious events, and gathers so many confidences and moments of intimate prayer.”

In his speech inside the basilica, Pope Leo, also speaking in French, said, “This very basilica is a sign of our desire for peace and unity.”

“It symbolizes a Church of living stones, where communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape under the mantle of Our Lady of Africa,” he said.

During the event, people waited outside in the pouring rain as the basilica was filled to capacity.

Among those present inside the basilica was Father Jean Fernandes, rector of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Algiers, who described the local Catholic Church as very small and “highly diverse in terms of nationalities and cultures.” He said the community serves “as a sign of the Church’s universality in a non-Christian society.”

He told OSV News he has been in Algeria for seven years and serves the Archdiocese of Algiers not only as the cathedral’s pastor, but also as chaplain to university students from sub-Saharan Africa.

“It is a very unique situation, as we are embedded in a predominantly Muslim society and must constantly adapt to this reality,” said the priest, a Brazilian member of the Shalom Catholic Community. “Dialogue with Algerian society has developed gradually through welcoming visitors to our small churches and through our service to the poorest.”

Father Fernandes said that for local Catholics, the papal trip to Algeria is “a great gift from God for this small Church, which never imagined a papal visit so early in his pontificate and at the start of his apostolic journey to Africa. It is also a sign of hope for the future of this small community.”

Among those who had gathered for the event was Sister Brigitte Zawadi, a member of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who has been serving as a missionary in Algeria for two years.

“I’m working with students from many countries coming from Africa and some from Algeria,” she told OSV News. For me, it’s a special mission.”

In his remarks, Pope Leo pointed to the great witnesses to faith both ancient and modern in the North African country, where St. Augustine served as bishop in the fourth century. Pope Leo cited the writings of St. Charles de Foucauld, the French hermit and missionary canonized by Pope Francis in 2022, who lived in Algeria among the Tuareg people of the Sahara before his martyrdom. He also quoted Brother Luc, the elderly physician-monk of the Trappist community of Notre-Dame de l’Atlas at Tibhirine, Algeria, whose story was depicted in the acclaimed 2010 French film “Of Gods and Men.”

Before his martyrdom, when offered a chance to flee potential danger at the cost of abandoning his patients, Brother Luc replied simply: “I want to stay with them.”

Earlier in the day, the pope made a private visit to the Augustinian Missionary Sisters of Bab El Oued to honor two of their members, Sister Esther Paniagua Alonso and Sister Caridad Álvarez Martín, who were killed in 1994 while on their way to Mass. Both were among the 19 martyrs beatified in 2018. Their congregation continues to serve the local population through education and outreach for children, youth and women.

Following his address in the basilica, Pope Leo prayed in a side chapel dedicated to St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, which also contained the cross from the Tibhirine monastery and an icon of the martyrs of Algeria, where the pope lit a candle in prayer.

In his message to the local Catholic community, Pope Leo reflected on Algeria’s geography as a spiritual metaphor, pointing to the vast Sahara Desert that dominates much of the country’s territory.

“In the desert, no one can survive alone,” he said. “The hostile environment dispels any presumptions of self-sufficiency, reminding us that we need one another, and that we need God.”

The evening gathering included an eclectic mix of hymns and multiple testimonies, including words from a missionary and a Muslim.

Rakel Anzere, 26, a Pentecostal Christian from Kenya studying in Algeria, shared with the pope her experience taking part in ecumenical Taizé prayers with other students in Algeria.

“It’s really an honor because I get to meet the pope in person and to also speak on behalf of … how our experience here in Algeria as Christians has been,” Anzere told OSV News prior to her testimony.

She added that it is clear to her that Pope Leo “has the people of Africa in his heart.”

The meeting in the basilica was the pope’s last public event of the day before returning to the apostolic nunciature, where he will meet privately with Algeria’s bishops. On April 14, the pope is scheduled to travel to Annaba and the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Hippo, where he will celebrate Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine.

The Algeria leg of his journey is the first stop on an ambitious 18-flight, 11,000-mile papal trip through four African nations, Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, that runs through April 23.

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