Open conflict with the President of the United States was not something Pope Leo XIV expected when his Apostolic Journey took him to the largest country in Africa. The leader of some 1.4 billion Roman Catholics was in Algeria last week, following in the footsteps of Saint Augustine, his spiritual mentor, who was born there in the 4th Century AD. 

Pope Leo was first received in the capital city of Algiers, at the Martyrs’ Memorial, where he paid tribute to the 1.5 million victims of the country’s eight-year war of independence from France, which ended in 1962. The Pope then visited the Algiers Grand Mosque – the third largest in the world after the ones in Mecca and Medina.  

On April 14, there was a papal mass in Annaba, the northeastern port city which was called Hippone when Augustine wrote his most significant theological works. Celebrants packed Annaba’s magnificent Basilica of Saint Augustine – a building as revered by pilgrims from Algeria’s 48-million-strong Muslim population as it is by the 10,000 Catholics who live there.  

As someone who spent many tranquil hours inside the Arab-Byzantine edifice as a child in my parents’ home city, I was among those looking forward to the Pope’s visit concentrating on interfaith dialogue and cooperation between people of all backgrounds. 

As someone who spent many tranquil hours inside the Arab-Byzantine edifice as a child in my parents’ home city, I was among those looking forward to the Pope’s visit concentrating on interfaith dialogue and cooperation between people of all backgrounds. 

Instead, Pope Leo was forced to respond to a fierce attack by President Donald Trump over America and Israel’s devastating war against Iran. It should not be necessary to reference any pontiff as a man of peace, but Trump is weak on facts, and was outraged that........

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