Pope Leo XIV received Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in an audience on July 24, 2025, at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. This exceptional political visit, organized in the middle of summer, was part of the Algerian president's visit to Rome, where he had participated in an intergovernmental meeting with Italian authorities the day before.
The president's visit to Rome comes at a time of Algerians' growing interest in St. Augustine of Hippo, a native of those lands.
President Tebboune, who met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Bari in June 2024, is the first Algerian head of state to be received by a pope at the Vatican since Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 1999.
General topic addressed
After his meeting with the Pope, the Algerian president, who will celebrate his 80th birthday in November, was received in the Secretariat of State by Cardinal Pietro Parolin. They were also accompanied by Monsignor Daniel Pacho, undersecretary for the multilateral sector of the Section for Relations with States and International Organizations.
The meeting highlighted “the importance of good diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Algeria,” according to a brief statement, which added that the two sides discussed “certain aspects of the life of the Church in the country.”
No specific details were mentioned, but the ban on Caritas in the country in October 2022 forced the Church to scale back its social and humanitarian activities, particularly with regard to African migrants, who make up a significant portion of the country's Catholic communities.
On October 25 and 26, 2022, the visit to Algiers by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See's secretary for relations with states, helped improve dialogue between the Algerian government and the local Church.
The “current geopolitical situation” was also discussed. The statement does not mention any specific situation, but the war in Gaza is naturally a point of common concern between the Holy See and Algeria.
The two sides also recalled “the importance of interreligious dialogue and cultural collaboration in building peace and fraternity in the world.”
Algeria, a Muslim-majority country, is home to a small Catholic minority consisting mainly of migrants and expatriates, spread across four dioceses: Algiers, Oran, Laghouat (in the Sahara), and Constantine. The latter diocese, which has just been given a new bishop in the person of Frenchman Michel Guillaud, is home to the city of Annaba, formerly Hippo, where St. Augustine was bishop from 396 to 430.
The memory of St. Augustine
The memory of this Father of the Church — to whom Leo XIV, a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, regularly refers — could motivate a future visit by the Pope to Algeria. There are rumors of a possible apostolic trip in 2026, a year that would also mark the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of the monks of Tibhirine and the bishop of Oran, Pierre Claverie, who were beatified in 2018.
However, no official announcement to this effect has been made in the context of the Algerian president's visit to Rome. Several months of negotiations and preparation will likely be necessary before any announcement is made on this subject.
Father Prevost went to Algeria
Along with Russia, China, and Vietnam, Algeria is one of the main countries that has never received a papal visit.
However, the current pope already visited the country as Prior General of the Augustinians. Robert Francis Prevost took part in a symposium organized in Souk Ahras, formerly Thagaste, which was the birthplace of Saint Augustine.
The Observalgerie website also mentions his participation in the inauguration of the restored basilica of Annaba in 2013.
Between 2010 and 2013, this basilica, named after Saint Augustine, underwent major renovation work jointly supported by the Algerian state and the French Republic.
Benedict XVI, who was personally very attached to this Father of the Church, to whom he had dedicated a thesis in the 1950s, also contributed to the project.
St. Augustine as a national figure
On November 15, 1999, during his visit to the Vatican, the then Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, presented John Paul II with a statuette representing Saint Augustine as a child.
Saint Augustine's popularity has grown considerably in recent years in Algeria, particularly among intellectual circles. A tangible sign of this renown is that in 2018-2019, under the patronage of the Algerian Embassy in Paris, a federation of Algerian diaspora associations in France was formed under the name “Cercle Saint-Augustin” (Saint Augustine Circle).
