Details of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Algeria announced

New details have emerged about Pope Leo XIV’s planned visit to Algeria in April, including its theme, meetings with Algerian officials and religious events, The New Arab reported on 11 March.

The Vatican has chosen the phrase “As-salamu alaykum” (Peace Be Upon You) as the central theme of the visit, which will take place from 13 to 15 April.

The Bishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco, said the programme will begin with a meeting between the pope and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

The visit will also include masses with the Christian community at the Church of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers and at Saint Augustine Basilica in the eastern city of Annaba.

Church authorities in Algeria said registrations for the two masses had been closed due to limited seating and to allow security arrangements ahead of the visit.

Around 200 journalists are expected to cover the trip, with Algerian authorities preparing a media centre in Annaba to facilitate coverage by local and international reporters.

Bishop Vesco also said the pope will visit a religious site commemorating 19 monks killed during Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s. The following day the pope will travel to Annaba, where Saint Augustine once lived, for another mass.

Vesco said the pope is not expected to visit the Tibhirine monastery south of Algiers, where seven monks were killed by an armed group in 1997. He added that many Muslims were also killed during the violence of the 1990s, including around 100 imams.

The bishop also said the bicentennial of Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, founder of the White Fathers missionary order, would not be marked during the papal visit due to sensitivities linked to his colonial-era activities in Algeria.

Algeria has a small Christian community within a predominantly Muslim population. The visit will be the first by a pope to the country since it gained independence in 1962.

The New Arab, Maghrebi.org