Pope: martyrs of Algeria sign of
brotherhood for the world
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| Beatification ceremony in Oran, Algeria. |
As Father Pierre Claverie and 18 other martyrs were
Beatified on Saturday in Algeria, Pope Francis sent a message to the Algerian
people.
By Linda Bordoni
In a message to the people of Algeria Pope Francis
urged them to go forward in healing the wounds of the past and nurturing a
culture of encounter and coexistence.
The 19 martyrs were killed between 1994 and 1996 during the
civil war in Algeria between the government and Islamist groups. All were
religious and they all shared a love of Christ and a desire to serve the Muslim
people of the nation.
The Pope’s message was read after the Beatification Mass
presided over in the city of Oran by Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prefect of the
Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.
Pope Francis described the celebration as a joyful one for
the Church in Algeria and said he joins the community in giving thanks “for
these lives given totally for the love of God, the country and all its
inhabitants”.
Encounter and coexistence
May this celebration, he said, “help to heal the wounds of
the past and to create a new dynamic of encounter and coexistence in the
following of our Blessed”.
The Pope thanked the political authorities of Algeria for
having “made possible the celebration on Algerian soil of the beatification of
Bishop Pierre Claverie and of his eighteen martyr companions” and he expressed
affection and closeness to the Algerian people “who experienced great suffering
during the social crisis of which they were victims in the last years of the
last century”.
He said that while he celebrates “the fidelity of these
martyrs to God's plan for peace" he also prays for the “sons and daughters
of Algeria who, like the martyrs, became victims of the same violence for
having lived with respect for others and fidelity towards their duties as
believers and citizens.
“It is also for them that we raise our prayer and express
our grateful homage,” he said.
St. Augustine of Hippo
The Catholic Church in Algeria, the Pope continued,
considers itself the heir, together with the whole Algerian nation, of the
great message of love spread by one of the many spiritual teachers of the land,
Saint Augustine of Hippo.
The Algerian Church, he said, “wishes to serve the same
message in these times when all peoples are seeking to advance their aspiration
to live together in peace”.
“By beatifying our nineteen brothers and sisters,
Pope Francis said, the Church wishes to bear witness to her desire to continue
to work for dialogue, harmony and friendship”.
We believe, he concluded, that this unprecedented event in
the country “will draw in the Algerian sky a great sign of brotherhood
addressed to the whole world”.
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