Who are the blessed martyrs of Algeria commemorated on May 8?

Six years ago, on January 27, 2018, Pope Francis authorized the beatification decree of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions. They had given their lives to Christ and the Algerian people and remained faithful to this promise, even despite the violence that disfigured Algeria in the 1990s. On their feast day of May 8, the entire Catholic Church recognizes the power of their testimony (“martyr” means “witness”), that of Christian life among Muslims.

“A life at the service of everyone”

“Everyone died because they had chosen by grace to remain faithful to those who, through the circumstances of their shared life, had become their neighbors,” the bishops of Algeria wrote in a joint statement from 2018. “Their deaths revealed that their lives served everyone: the poor, women in difficult situations, the disabled, young people and all Muslims. A murderous ideology, a deformity of Islam, could not tolerate those who were different in nationality. through faith.”

Among the martyrs murdered between 1993 and 1996 are: the seven monks of Tibhirine, abducted and murdered in the spring of 1996; Former Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran murdered in August of the same year, as well as a Marist brother, Henri Vergès; four White Fathers, murdered in Tizi Ouzou the day after Christmas 1994; and six nuns from different congregations present in Algeria (Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles, Augustinian Missionaries, Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Little Sisters of the Assumption). With the exception of the Bishop of Oran, all belonged to the Archdiocese of Algiers, whose beatifications were initiated with exceptional speed by former Archbishop Henri Teissier.

The continued support of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis

It took just over a decade for the Universal Church to identify these 19 ordinary priests, brothers and sisters as models of evangelical life. This was a remarkably short time, which indicated the continued support of Pope Benedict . of the business, Brother Thomas Georgeon.

The case was first introduced in 2005 and was launched in 2007 following the establishment of an ecclesiastical tribunal. Marist Brother Giovanni Bigotto took charge of the process at diocesan level. Testimony was heard from all who had known the religious men and women and their writings were examined, forming a dossier totaling 7,000 pages. In the summer of 2013, the Roman phase began under the care of Brother Georgeon, a Cistercian close to the Tibhirine group. The speed with which the experts gave their advice, which was unanimously favorable, “surprised everyone, including those in the Algerian Church,” says Father Jean-Marie Lassausse, who continued to maintain the monastery after the monks’ deaths.

In fact, local Catholics in Algeria, who are accustomed to acting discreetly for both political and religious reasons, were not all in favor of the trial’s “spotlight” on the issue. Among the questions they asked were the following: Why should those who died be distinguished from others who remained there during the height of the storm, sometimes against the advice of their inner circle and even their congregations? How can one distinguish between the actions of “martyrs,” who testified to Christ’s love for Algeria, and others who blew themselves up in suicide bombings around the world? Most importantly, how can we avoid giving the impression that the Algerian Church celebrates ‘her’ own victims and forgets others?

Recognizing that the “wounds” of the entire experience “have not been fully healed,” the Algerian bishops discussed these fears with Pope Francis. In the months following their 2017 meeting, the bishops continued to discuss the issue in their dioceses, raising the issue at an interdiocesan priests meeting and other public forums.

“The whole point was to learn how to focus on the discreet presence of the church here, without sacrificing that discretion,” Bishop Jean-Paul Vesco of Oran said in an interview with the Algerian newspaper Reporters on January 18.

“It would be bad news if the beatification appeared as a purely Catholic story that pits Catholics against Muslims, when that is exactly the opposite of what we are looking for,” he said.

Don’t reopen old wounds

As a result, the bishops have consistently emphasized to their European colleagues that “it was not Muslim extremists who murdered Christians, but an entire people that fell into a scourge of terrorism on a large scale,” Archbishop Paul Jacques Marie Desfarges of Alger said. expressed.

Regarding their own region, there was apparently no question, either on their part or on the part of the global Church, to deny the testimony of the 200,000 Algerians who also died during the decade of darkness.

The dead included many imams, writers, journalists, teachers and doctors, all of whom “gave their lives in fidelity to God and to their conscience,” the Algerian bishops added. Among them were “99 imams who lost their lives because they refused to justify violence.”

The bishops also emphasized that the new blessed were “not heroes,” but simply members of the small Algerian Catholic Church, who refused to “abandon those they loved, especially during the time of trial.”

“This is the daily miracle of friendship and brotherhood,” the bishops said.

Pope Francis also wanted the beatifications to become an opportunity “to look to the future” rather than reopen old wounds.

The beatifications have become “a light for our present and for the future,” the Algerian bishops wrote in their joint statement.

“The message of the beatifications is that hatred is not the right answer to hatred, that there is no inescapable spiral of violence.

“The beatifications should be a step toward forgiveness and peace for all people, starting with Algeria but also beyond.”

“The beatifications have a prophetic message for our world,” the bishops said.