Pope Leo To Visit Algeria Amidst Increasing Christian Persecution

When will he visit his BFFs in China? If he wants to visit a country where the Church is oppressed, tht would be a good place to start. Oh, and please sign the petition.

From The Imaginative Conservative

By Uzay Bulut

Over the past three years, state pressure on Christians in Algeria has intensified to levels unseen in decades, Open Doors said.

The Vatican has announced that as part of his upcoming African tour, Pope Leo XIV will visit Algeria 13–15 April. 

Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming trip is a historic event. No acting pontiff has ever visited Algeria, a former stronghold of ancient Christianity whose current population of 48 million is about 99% Muslim.

2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the 1996 attack on an Algerian monastery in which seven monks were kidnapped and beheaded by an Islamic group. Today, religious freedom has significantly deteriorated in the country, particularly impacting Algeria’s roughly 156,000 Christians. Algeria is currently ranked as the 20th most oppressive nation for Christians by the human rights organization Open Doors.

All 47 churches of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) have been closed by the authorities. The Algerian government continues to deny these churches legal registration despite EPA leaders having repeatedly attempted to certify their compliance with all registration requirements. 

The Catholic Church has also not been spared: its humanitarian service Caritas, which serves the entire population of Algeria, was closed in 2022.

Amid this oppressive environment, the pope’s visit is of great significance. Algeria, once a hub of Christianity, was home to Christian theologian and philosopher St. Augustine of Hippo. Born in present-day Souk Ahras, St. Augustine is viewed as one of the most important church fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. 

Pope Leo XIV calls St. Augustine his “spiritual father.” He is a member of the Augustinian Order and a longtime Augustinian priest. It is highly significant that the pope will now head to the land of St. Augustine, where churches face severe persecution.

Algeria was predominantly Christian starting from the second century until the Arab-Muslim conquests in the seventh century. During Roman rule, it was a major Christian hub.

Algeria, then part of the majority-Christian Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, was invaded and conquered by Islam in the seventh century. Christians and Jews in the country became “dhimmis,” second-class subjects of an Islamic empire required to pay the high jizya tax in exchange for their survival. Christianity then slowly faded as a result of systematic discrimination and persecution as Islam became the dominant religion. 

Algeria’s French colonial period, which began in about 1830, saw a resurgence in Christianity. At its highest point during the colonial period, Algeria’s Christian population exceeded one million.

Today, those who convert to Christianity are subjected to criminal prosecution. The legal opening of churches has been made virtually impossible following a 2006 ordinance on non-Muslim religions and the 2012 law on associations. The 2006 ordinance allows Christian worship only in registered churches. The gathering of Christians outside approved church buildings is illegal. The ordinance also makes proselytizing a criminal offense, punishable by one to three years in prison. Printing Christian materials is also banned.

Christians in Algeria often avoid displaying religious symbols or openly sharing their faith, including on social media, due to the risk of prosecution under strict anti-proselytism and blasphemy laws. Arbitrary arrests have multiplied in the country. In the past three years, at least 50 Christians have been prosecuted; some have received suspended prison sentences and fines while their appeals remain pending. 

Open Doors reports that “over the past three years, state pressure on Protestant Christians in Algeria has intensified to levels unseen in decades.” 

The Algerian constitution requires the president to be a Muslim. Christians, regardless of background, are excluded from senior government positions, further restricting their participation in public life. Likewise, government control and bureaucratic hurdles prevent Christians from actively developing civil society.

Christian students living in conservative Islamic areas, especially children of converts, must conceal their faith to avoid discrimination from teachers and restricted university access. Similarly, converts risk discrimination when applying for jobs and often must hide their beliefs. Christians, especially converts and immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, also face discrimination when dealing with authorities. Meanwhile, Algerian authorities have increasingly targeted the church’s online presence. This includes the December 2024 closure of a Christian Facebook group with more than 50,000 followers. 

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2026 Annual Report on Algeria,

In 2025, the Algerian government’s repression of religious freedom … most directly targeted the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) community. EPA leadership reported repeated raids on their homes and places of worship, during which authorities confiscated religious literature and accused them of proselytization. These raids resulted in several investigations, arrests, and prosecutions … . In May, authorities reportedly claimed ‘customs restrictions’ to prevent 14 members of the EPA from traveling to Egypt to attend a religious conference. 

Although Algeria remains firmly gripped by Islam, the country has one of the biggest communities of converts from Islam to Christianity in the wider Middle East and North Africa. Most of these converts belong to the indigenous Amazigh (Berber) ethnic community in the Kabyle Region. Since Algeria’s independence from French rule in 1962, there has been political tension between Kabyle and the central (Arab) government over issues related to ethnic identity, culture, and language. The Amazigh have been discriminated against and neglected by the government for many years, creating an environment for the Christian community to develop.  

The European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) recently launched a petition in support of Christians in Algeria within the context of the pope’s upcoming visit in April: 

Today, in Algeria, one cannot freely be a Christian. The Constitution adopted in 2020 removed all explicit references to freedom of conscience. Only Islamic identity counts, to the exclusion of all other religions.

The petition calls on the Algerian authorities to “guarantee freedom of conscience for all citizens in practice, allow the legal reopening of closed places of worship and the Caritas service and end the persecution of Christians for the peaceful expression of their faith.”

Whether the Algerian authorities will heed the petition’s call and honor the pope as well as Algeria’s Christians remains to be seen.