“The future belongs to men and women of peace,” Pope Leo told Algerians and the wider world as he stood at the Maqam Echahid Martyrs’ Monument for those who died in the struggle for independence from France. He spoke after praying at the monument and laying a wreath in memory of the dead.
He began by wishing peace to his “dear Algerian brothers and sisters,” in both English and Arabic, in his first speech soon after landing in this predominantly Muslim country of 48 million people, the largest country in Africa, which lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert.
At the monument, he was welcomed by a government minister and by the French-born archbishop of Algiers, Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, O.P., who told him, in words that caused the pope to smile: “Most Holy Father, quoting Martin Luther King, I might say, ‘I had a dream,’ and that dream was of a pope visiting Algeria to meet this people to whom our Catholic Church knows it has been sent and with whom it shares a bond of life and blood. Today, this people welcome in you a supreme pontiff, a son of St. Augustine and, above all, a brother.”
In his speech, delivered in English and immediately translated into Arabic, Pope Leo said, “I stand before you, first and foremost as a brother.”
He praised Algeria as “a great country, with a long history, rich in traditions dating back to the time of St. Augustine and well before.” But, he recalled, “it is also a painful history, marked by periods of violence,” and yet thanks to their “nobility of spirit,” the people have been able to overcome those trials, alluding to the country’s war of independence (1954-62) and civil war (1992-2002).
“God desires peace for every nation: a peace that is not merely an absence of conflict, but one that is an expression of justice and dignity,” the pope said. “This peace, which allows us to face the future with a reconciled spirit, is possible only through forgiveness.”
“The true struggle for liberation will be definitively won only when peace in our hearts has finally been achieved,” Leo said. “I know how difficult it is to forgive. But, as conflicts continue to multiply throughout the world, we cannot add resentment upon resentment, generation after generation. The future belongs to men and women of peace. In the end, justice will always triumph over injustice, just as violence, despite all appearances, will never have the last word.”
He went on to highlight the fact that “faith in God has a central place in your heritage” and that “a nation that loves God possesses true wealth, and the Algerian people cherish this jewel as one of their treasures.”
He held up the Algerian people as an example to the world, saying: “Our world needs believers like this—men and women of faith who thirst for justice and unity. For this reason, in the face of a humanity yearning for fraternity and reconciliation, it is a great gift and a sacred duty for us to declare with conviction that we are always united as brothers and sisters, children of the one God!”
Presidential welcome
It was raining when Pope Leo stepped off the ITA plane onto Algerian soil, the first pope in history to visit this land. He was welcomed by the country’s president and a 21-gun salute. Afterward, he drove to the monument of the martyrs, along a highly secured route decorated with the flags of the Vatican and Algeria.
From the monument, Leo was driven to the presidential palace, where, after a private conversation with the president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, he went to the Djamaa el Djazair Conference Center. There the president hailed his visit as “truly historic” and, in words that contrasted with what President Donald Trump said the night before, he welcomed him as “one of the world’s most passionate advocates of social justice, at a time when the gap of economic inequality continues to widen dramatically, especially between the North and the South, and when the development disparities are growing ever more pronounced, both between nations and within societies.”
The Algerian president welcomed him, too, as “the world’s most eloquent voice for peace, at a time when conflicts are undermining security and stability in many parts of the globe, especially in the Middle East.” He praised the pope’s “courageous position regarding the tragedy in Gaza, the ongoing alarming developments affecting the Palestinian cause as a whole, and the many tragedies that have befallen the Gulf region.”
He told Leo that Algerians “and all people of conscience around the world” joined him in calling “for justice for the Palestinian people: that they be allowed to receive the humanitarian aid intended for them, that an end be put to the systematic crimes committed against them, and that their inalienable right to an independent and sovereign State be upheld.”
He concluded by welcoming the pope as “the worthiest bearer of the torch of universal human and spiritual values: freedom, dialogue and peaceful coexistence.”
‘A witness to peace’
Pope Leo began his speech to the authorities by thanking them for their warm welcome and noted that “as a spiritual son of St. Augustine,” he had visited Annaba, formerly called Hippo, twice: in 2001 and 2013.
Today, he said, “I am here among you as a pilgrim of peace…. We are brothers and sisters, for we have the same Father in heaven.” He praised “the profound religious sense of the Algerian people” that “fosters a culture of encounter and reconciliation, of which my visit also seeks to be a sign.”
He told the 1,400 Algerians present and the many Algerians watching on television that he had come “as a witness to the peace and hope that the world so ardently desires, and that your people have always sought.” He told them that “the future belongs to those who do not allow themselves to be blinded by power or wealth, and those who refuse to sacrifice the dignity of their fellow citizens for the sake of personal or collective gain.”
He said the spirit of hospitality is “deeply rooted in Arab and Berber communities” and noted that they also engaged in almsgiving, believing that sharing what one has was “a matter of justice.”
“This view of justice is both simple and radical, for it recognizes the image of God in others,” he said. “Indeed, a religion without mercy and a society without solidarity are a scandal in God’s eyes.”
Yet today, Pope Leo said, “many societies that consider themselves advanced are plunging ever deeper into inequality and exclusion.” He added that “Africa knows all too well that people and organizations that dominate others destroy the world, which the Most High has created in order that we might live together.”
In a much-applauded speech, delivered in English, he told them: “By respecting the dignity of everyone and allowing yourselves to be moved by the pain of others, instead of multiplying misunderstandings and conflicts, you can surely become protagonists of a new chapter in history.” He said, “Today, this is more urgent than ever in the face of continuous violations of international law and neocolonial tendencies.”
Leo assured them that the Catholic Church in Algeria “through her communities and initiatives, wishes to contribute to the common good of Algeria, strengthening its distinctive identity as a bridge between North and South, and between East and West.”
Then turning to a question that seemed linked to the migrant crisis, Pope Leo said, “the Mediterranean, on the one hand, and the Sahara, on the other, represent geographical and spiritual crossroads of immense significance.”
He continued, “Woe to us if we turn them into graveyards where hope also dies!”
He said fundamentalism and secularization are “causing many to lose an authentic sense of God and of the dignity of all his creatures” and consequently “religious symbols and words can become, on the one hand, blasphemous languages of violence and oppression, or on the other, empty signs in the immense marketplace of consumption that does not satisfy us.” But, he said, “these absurd polarizations must not dishearten us. They must be confronted with intelligence” as they are “a sign that we are living in an extraordinary time of great renewal, in which those who keep their hearts free, and their consciences alert, can draw from the great spiritual and religious traditions new ways of seeing the world and an unshakable purpose in life.”
He concluded, “We must educate people in critical thinking and freedom, in listening and dialogue, and in the trust that leads us to recognize in those who are different fellow travelers and not threats.”
A land of martyrs
That afternoon, Pope Leo engaged in two other major events. He went to the Great Mosque in Algiers, the third largest in the world, accompanied by its rector, Mohamed Mamoun Al Qasimi. After taking off his shoes, he walked on the colorful carpets through the mosque to the mihrab—a semicircular niche in the wall facing Mecca in front of which Muslims pray. Pope Leo stood there in silence for at least a minute, which he did not do when he visited the Blue Mosque in Turkey in November.
From there, he drove through the driving rain to the Basilica of Notre Dame D’Afrique (Our Lady of Africa), where he was given a truly joyful welcome by the bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful as he entered the church. He was greeted by Cardinal Vesco, who had voted in the conclave that elected him.
After a festive prayer service, marked by electric guitars and moving testimonies of faith, including one from a Muslim woman, Pope Leo spoke in French.
“It is with profound joy and fatherly affection that I meet with you today, you whose discrete and precious presence in this land is marked by an ancient heritage and by luminous witnesses of the faith,” he said. “Your community has deep roots indeed.”
He reminded them they are “the heirs of a host of witnesses who gave their lives, motivated by love for God and neighbor” and mentioned in particular “the 19 men and women religious who were martyred in Algeria, choosing to stand alongside this people in its joys and sorrows.”
He was referring to the seven Trappist monks, six sisters, four White Fathers, one Marist brother and Bishop Pierre Claverie, O.P., all of whom were killed between 1994 and 1996, in the violent decade of Algeria’s civil war. “Their blood is a living seed that never ceases to bear fruit,” Leo said.
Pope Leo reminded this small Algerian Catholic community, “you are also heirs to a still more ancient tradition, dating back to the early centuries of Christianity. In this land resounded the fervent voice of Augustine of Hippo, preceded by the testimony of his mother, St. Monica, and of other saints.”
“Their memory,” he said, “shines as a call to be authentic signs of communion, dialogue and peace today.”
Then, referring to the testimonies he had heard, Leo urged them to take to heart “three aspects of Christian life that I consider to be essential—particularly in light of your presence here: prayer, charity and unity.”
“We all need to pray,” he said, and recalled the example of St. Charles de Foucauld, who “embraced his vocation as a prayerful presence.”
Referring to charity, Pope Leo said: “It is precisely love for their brothers and sisters that inspired the witness of the martyrs we have commemorated. 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.”
Leo then spoke of “our commitment to promoting peace and unity.” He told the Algerian believers: “In a world where division and wars sow pain and death among nations, in communities, and even within families, your experience of unity and peace is a compelling sign. Together, you spread fraternity and inspire a deep longing for communion and reconciliation with a powerful and clear message that is borne in simplicity and humility.”
After assuring them of his and imparting his blessing, Leo prayed at the chapel of St. Monica and lit a candle. It was an emotional moment for this first Augustinian pope. Tomorrow, he will travel to Annaba, formerly Hippo, and pray at the archeological site where St. Augustine exercised his ministry.
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