ANNABA, Algeria.- This Tuesday, the Pope Leo XIV He assured that a future of justice, peace, concord and salvation is possible, in the homily of the mass he celebrated in the Basilica of Saint Augustine of Annabanorthwest of Algeria, on the second day of his trip in which he visited the places of the life of the saint of Hippothe old name of that city.
Pope Leo XIV, who belongs to the Augustinian order, celebrated mass in the basilica dedicated to the saint on a day in which he was also in the Hippo archaeological areathe city of which Saint Augustine was bishop, and visited a senior center.
“So, when we ask ourselves how a future of justice and peace, of harmony and salvation is possible (…) can our history really change? We are so burdened with problems, threats and tribulations! Can our life really start over from scratch? Yes!” said the holy father speaking in French.
“No matter how oppressed we are by pain or by sin; the Crucified bears all those weights with us and for us. No matter how much our weaknesses discourage us,” he added.
God’s heart is torn by wars, violence, injustices and lies. But our Father’s heart is not with the wicked, with the arrogant, with the proud; The heart of God is with the small and the humble, and with them he carries forward…
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex_es) April 14, 2026
The pope proclaimed: “where there is despair, it ignites hope; where there is misery, it brings dignity; where there is conflict, it brings reconciliation.”
“Give testimony of God to the world,” asks the Pope
To the religious, the bishop of Rome asked them to continue with their mission of “bearing witness to God to the world with one heart and one soul” and “without worries corrupting them with fear or fashions weakening them.”
While the Catholics of Algeria, who represent only 0.02% of the population, about 90,000 people, he encouraged them to give “flavor and they will be light where they live” despite being a small community.
“That incense is a small and precious element, which is not in the center of attention, but invites us to direct our hearts to God, encouraging one another to persevere in the difficulties of the present time,” he told them.
The pope, who already knew this basilica when he traveled as prior general of the Augustinians, was able to stop again before the imposing reliquary with the fragment of the right ulna of Saint Augustine, considered the “arm that wrote” his works, and which was returned to Hippo in 1842, while the saint is buried in the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oroin the Italian city of Pavia, where he will attend in the coming weeks.
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