After Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV may visit Algeria next to honour Saint Augustine

Algeria could become the first North African country the new pontiff visits independently, marking a symbolic reconnection with the land where one of Christianity's most influential thinkers lived and died.

Pope Leo XIV announced on 2 December that he hopes to visit Algeria in the near future, specifically to visit sites associated with Saint Augustine's life and to continue building bridges between the Christian and Muslim communities.

Speaking aboard the papal plane returning to the Vatican after visiting Lebanon and Turkey, the 70-year-old pontiff said: "I hope to travel to Algeria to visit the places associated with the life of Saint Augustine, and also to continue the discourse of dialogue and bridge-building between the Christian and Muslim worlds."

If realised, this would mark the first visit by any pope to Algeria and represent one of the earliest trips Pope Leo XIV organises himself, as his visit to Turkey had been scheduled by his predecessor Pope Francis.

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the Franco-Algerian Archbishop of Algiers, confirmed to The New Arab that an invitation had been extended and that the pope had expressed his desire to attend.

"When he was elected, I told him it would be beautiful if he were the first pope to visit Algeria. He replied that he would come with pleasure, and indeed the invitation was extended, and he confirmed his desire to come," Vesco said.

The cardinal emphasised that the visit extends beyond historical pilgrimage. "I believe he is coming for today's Algeria, not only for Saint Augustine. He has already visited Algeria twice and knows Saint Augustine's paths well; therefore, his goal is not to discover them, because he knows them already, but he has the desire to come this time in his capacity as pope," Vesco explained.

Saint Augustine was born on November 13, 354 AD, in Tagaste, present-day Souk Ahras in eastern Algeria, and died on August 28, 430 AD, in Hippo Regius, modern-day Annaba, where a Catholic Church bearing his name now stands.

Throughout his life, spanning more than 75 years, Augustine authored works including "Confessions," "City of God," and "Letters and Sermons"—books that combine personal experience, philosophy, and theology and continue to influence religious and philosophical thought globally, making him one of Christianity's most important thinkers. Yet his presence in Algerian public consciousness remains weak or problematic.

Rahima Ismail, a professor of architecture at the University of Algiers, described Augustine as "a historical figure whose paths extended over more than 1,500 kilometres within current Algerian territory through a complex network of Roman roads, urban centres, and bishoprics that formed the spatial framework for his life and intellectual and theological activity."

These routes, Ismail explained, connected cities that played pivotal roles in Roman North Africa, including Tagaste as his birthplace and place of early formation, Hippo Regius as the episcopal and intellectual centre where Augustine settled most of his life, alongside Tebessa and Guelma—all regions that were important points of political, cultural and civilizational transit and interaction.

"We are not surprised that Augustine's thought, in many of his texts, is linked to the urban context of these cities, reflecting close interaction between thought and city," Ismail said.

Reclaiming multilayered urban memory

Ismail views the papal visit as potentially catalysing a reinterpretation of Augustine's relationship with his native land. "It carries high symbolic value, enabling the reintegration of Augustinian paths within shared historical memory, not as exclusively ecclesiastical heritage, but as part of the multilayered urban history Algeria has known since ancient times, which is often obscured due to lack of conviction in its usefulness," she said.

The absence of multidisciplinary approaches that combine history, archaeology, urban planning, and memory studies has prevented the transformation of Augustinian paths into tools for reading Algerian cities as multilayered historical products, according to Ismail.

The visit represents "an opportunity to rethink the past of cities that knew Saint Augustine's passage as places of memory and history, where remnants of urban traces—remains of ancient churches, forums, Roman road networks—become witnesses and material mediators for recalling the past and rereading it in the present," Ismail said.

She described the visit as not merely a political and diplomatic event. "Its impact extends to reactivating the relationship between memory, place, and urbanism, and transforming historical heritage from a silent past into a living urban and cultural resource that enhances Algeria's position as an important civilizational actor in its regional sphere and its humanitarian dimension," Ismail remarked. 

Christianity's complex colonial legacy

Despite Algeria's cultural and linguistic diversity between Arabs and Amazigh peoples, Islam proliferated in this North African country. The Algerian constitution states Islam is the state religion, while guaranteeing the practice of other religions. However, society has often viewed other faiths with suspicion, as evidenced by public discourse and, in particular, on social media.

This situation, according to academic and writer Faycel Lahmeur, stems from the colonial context Algeria experienced from 1830 to 1962, which transformed Christianity into a synonym for conquest.

"Every Christian became a French soldier carrying weapons ready to kill Algerians, and every Jew became a Zionist once, and a cunning, deceitful citizen protected by the Crémieux Decree on naturalizing Hebrews in Algeria with French citizenship while depriving other Algerians of it," Lahmeur explained, referring to the 1870 French decree that granted French citizenship automatically to Algerian Jews while excluding Algerian Muslims who remained subject to the Indigenous Code as citizens without full political rights.

Lahmeur, author of the novel "City of Saint Augustine," added that although this context has passed, "it left many dysfunctional reactions," despite Algeria having "known all religions since ancient times, and in each religion knew all sects, like what happened to all nations."

Lahmeur, who noted he is not a defender of Christianity and confirmed he is a practising Muslim, said he views the pope's potential visit to Algeria "as a kind of bridge-building between doctrinal formations in Algeria."

Lawyer Hachem Saci views Pope Leo XIV's visit to Algeria as a cross-border event that, if realised, will have significant implications for both shores of the Mediterranean.

"Algeria historically contributed significantly to Christian history, and a name like Saint Augustine is sufficient to confirm this fact, as it had great merit in the arrival and spread of Christianity to the northern shore of the Mediterranean through Saint Augustine's disciples," Saci said.

He added that the visit does not change Algeria's identity but confirms it.

"When we mention the pope's desire to visit Algeria, which he has expressed twice so far, we return to President Abdelmadjid Tebbon's visit to the Vatican this year and his invocation of a great historical and reference symbol in Algerian identity like Emir Abdelkader, who was a symbol of tolerance and coexistence between different religions and beliefs, and is a symbol that received global recognition," Saci said.

"Therefore, I say that if the visit takes place, it will only confirm a known identity and character of the Algerian nation across centuries in coexistence, tolerance, and respect for all beliefs," he continued.

Cardinal Vesco emphasised the pope's message of peace. "The pope is a man of peace, and he carries a message of peace," he said.

"The pope himself said that Saint Augustine forms a good bridge, specifically in the sense of living together. I believe he is part of Algerian heritage, part of universal human heritage, and also Christian heritage. From this angle, he forms a positive meeting point and a unifying link among everyone," the cardinal concluded.

Saint Augustine represents a meeting point between the Islamic and Christian societies, and this planned papal visit aims to deepen the culture of coexistence between these traditions.

This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.