This can be a historic first for a sovereign pontiff. L’Algeria is getting ready to welcome this Monday Leo XIV for a extremely symbolic go to: by no means earlier than has a pope visited this Muslim nation.
First cease of a significant tour in 4 African international locations, the American Pope goes to Algeria for 2 days “to proceed to construct bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world,” declared the Archbishop of Algiers, Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco. This journey additionally has a robust private dimension for the pope: he’ll in actual fact be within the fatherland of Saint Augustine, an incredible Christian thinker of the 4th century whose religious heritage permeates his hold forth.
A message of peace within the face of warfare within the Center East
In a global context strained by the war in the Middle Eastpeaceable coexistence might be on the coronary heart of the pope’s message on this nation of 47 million inhabitants, the place Sunni Islam is the state faith.
Anticipated at 10 a.m. in Algiers (11 a.m. in Paris), Léon XIV might be welcomed with honors. As quickly as he arrives, he can pay tribute, in entrance of the martyrs’ monument, to the victims of the warfare of independence in opposition to France (1954-1962), a gesture of recognition of the painful nationwide historical past. Within the course of, he might be acquired by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and can ship a primary speech to the authorities and the diplomatic corps.
Within the afternoon, the Pope will go to the Nice Mosque, a monumental complicated with the very best minaret on the earth (267 m), earlier than going to the Notre-Dame d’Afrique basilica, an emblematic Christian website of the nation which overlooks the Bay of Algiers. Throughout a celebration with an interreligious dimension mixing Christians and Muslims, the chief of the 1.4 billion Catholics will launch a name for fraternity within the nation the place Catholics signify lower than 0.01% of the inhabitants.
No journey to the Tibhirine monastery
On Monday, Leo However no journey is deliberate to the Tibhirine monastery, whose monks had been kidnapped and murdered in 1996, an episode nonetheless surrounded by grey areas.
In a pilgrimage with a extra private dimension, the Pope will journey Tuesday to Annaba, close to the Tunisian border, the traditional Hippo of which Saint Augustine (354-430) was the bishop.
This journey to Algeria opens the primary main worldwide tour of the 70-year-old pope, which is able to then take him to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, an 18,000 km marathon with a really dense agenda.
