Archbishop Lhernould: In Algeria, Pope Leo invited us to fraternity, a remedy for peace

A historic event that will have a broad and lasting impact on the Church and Algerian society," is how the President of the Conference of Bishops of the North Africa region (CERNA) and Archbishop of Tunis, Nicolas Lhernould, describes the Apostolic Journey of Pope Leo XIV in Algeria.

Speaking with Vatican Media, the Archbishop offers an assessment of the Pope’s visit, emphasizing that the common thread of his addresses is the centrality of God.

He also highlights the word convivium, used several times by the Pope—“this building of fraternity”—which “is very probably also the remedy against everything that leads to the opposite of peace.”

First of all, I see it as a historic event. Not only because no Pope had ever come to Algeria before, but above all because it is Pope Leo XIV, an Augustinian Pope, who has come in the footsteps of Augustine. From the inspiration of Augustine to the encounter with a people. That is, he did not come to make a pilgrimage—he had already done so twice when he was Prior General—he came with all his Augustinian strength and with the emotion of being, above all, in Annaba, but also in Algiers, to meet a people of whom Augustine is a son. This, for me, is what is most historic, not only the fact that no Pope had come here before him.

You were Bishop of Constantine and took part in the Mass celebrated by Leo XIV in the Basilica of Saint Augustine, ancient Hippo, today Annaba. What did this celebration mean?

The first thing is that for me it was a great emotion to see again so many beloved faces—friends, brothers, sisters, communities, but also friends who are not Christians, who came because there was an event. But this is not unusual for us, because there is this coexistence, this fraternity with Muslims, which is lived even to the point of a kind of spiritual emulation that means we also easily frequent one another’s places of prayer.

The second thing is that in this ceremony I experienced a very strong atmosphere of peace, based on the interculturality that characterizes our communities, but with a gentleness, a meekness that also radiated from the Holy Father himself, from his way of being and from his words. It was a significant event, even worldwide thanks to the mass media, and at the same time it was a family moment, an image of our small Church and of the way we live this relationship with our Muslim friends in the country. So I believe it was a powerful event and image, of the universal Church and of the local Church.

Changing history starting from the heart. In the Mass celebrated in French in the Basilica of Saint Augustine, in Annaba, ancient Hippo, on the second day of his journey.