VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Though no official date has been made public by the Holy See, Pope Leo XIV has expressed his desire to visit Algeria this year, a trip that would make him the first pontiff to travel to the north African country.
Some Vatican experts believe the visit might take place in the spring, after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which runs from mid-February to mid-March. That timing would coincide with the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of seven Trappist monks in Tibhirine, in the south of Algeria, on May 21. (The story of the seven was depicted in the 2010 film “Of Gods and Men.”)
In July, Leo met with the president of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, at the Vatican, a meeting seen by Vatican watchers as potentially laying the groundwork for a formal invitation.
“Personally, I hope to go to Algeria to visit the places of St. Augustine’s life,” the pope said in December, referring to the fourth-century church father who was bishop of Hippo, in modern-day Algeria. Pope Leo is a member and former leader of the Augustinian order, which traces its roots to Augustine’s teachings.
Algeria, red, located in north Africa. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
In 2001, Algeria hosted a major international conference titled “St. Augustine: Africanity and Universality,” which aimed at reframing the bishop of Hippo as an African intellectual figure. After the conference, said François Vayne, an Algerian journalist of French origins who has reported on Algerian Chri …