Archbishop Javier Herrera Corona was appointed apostolic nuncio to Algeria by Pope Leo XIV, the Holy See Press Office announced on November 22, 2025. The Mexican archbishop, was previously posted to Congo and Gabon. Now, he will be tasked with overseeing a land particularly dear to the heart of the Pope.
The land where St. Augustine once lived is now a majority Muslim country, but the Church is present, and a papal trip is likely on the horizon.
Leo XIV had already indicated a possible trip to Algeria, where St. Augustine is recognized as a central national figure, and he said it again on the return from Turkey/Lebanon.
He said:
As for visits, there is nothing absolutely certain; I hope to carry out a visit to Africa. That would possibly be the next journey.
[...]
Africa, Africa. Personally, I hope to go to Algeria to visit the places of St. Augustine, but also in order to continue the conversation of dialogue, of building bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world. In the past, in another role, I already had the opportunity to speak about this topic.
It is interesting: the figure of Saint Augustine helps a great deal as a bridge, because in Algeria he is very much respected as a son of the homeland. That is one.
The new nuncio
Born in Mexico in 1968 and ordained a priest for the Diocese of Autlán in 1993, Archbishop Herrera Corona entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on July 1, 2003. He has served in papal representations in Pakistan, Peru, Kenya, Great Britain, and the Philippines.
He also served as unofficial representative in Hong Kong, a strategic position for relations with mainland China, which still does not maintain official diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
On February 5, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) and Gabon. He received episcopal ordination from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, on April 23, 2022.
His appointment as Apostolic Nuncio to Algeria ends more than seven months of vacancy in the post, since the transfer of Bishop Kurian Mathew Valayunkal to Chile on March 15.
A step towards a papal visit?
The presence in Algeria of a “papal ambassador” would speed up preparations for a visit by Pope Leo XIV to the country of St. Augustine, his spiritual master. The famous saint, theologian, philosopher, and writer remains a highly respected and well-known figure in the country far beyond the Catholic minority.
This trip, which would be the first by a pope to this vast Maghreb country, has been the subject of persistent rumors since Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune's visit to the Vatican on July 24.
According to several French media outlets, including Le Point and Le Figaro, the recent release of writer Boualem Sansal and his being sent to Germany and then France could be indirectly linked to a planned papal visit, as Algeria is keen to improve its image on the international stage.
The Catholic Church in Algeria is mainly made up of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and European expatriates, but also includes a few Algerian Christians. The beatification on December 8, 2018, in Oran of 19 Catholic martyrs of the Algerian civil war of the 1990s, including Bishop Pierre Claverie and the seven monks of Tibhirine, received widespread media coverage in the country. This broke the taboo surrounding the memory of this “black decade.”
These monks have a unique link to Pope Leo, and he recently quoted one in the preface to a book.
"The desire for communion, recognizing that we are brothers and sisters, is the antidote to all extremism," wrote Pope Leo XIV in the preface to the book titled The Power of the Gospel: Christian Faith in 10 Words, a collection of some of his speeches published in Italy on November 20, 2025, by the Vatican Publishing House.
At the end of the last conclave, Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco pointed out to the new Pope Leo XIV the coincidence of the dates between the day of the death of the first martyrs of Algeria and that of his election, May 8. “The two Augustinian martyrs and the others are very much present in his personal memory,” the Franco-Algerian archbishop told us this summer.
The canonization of Charles de Foucauld by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, in Rome, also highlighted the long-standing commitment of Catholic religious to serving the Algerian population, which is overwhelmingly Muslim.
Prevost in Algeria
Before being elected pope, Robert Francis Prevost visited Algeria twice. First, he went in 2001 for a symposium on St. Augustine, and then in 2013 for the inauguration of the restored Basilica of St. Augustine in Annaba.
On that occasion, he went to Bab El Oued, where Sister Esther and Sister Caridad, two Augustinian nuns, were murdered in 1994. They’re among the 19 blessed martyrs of Algeria.
In Algiers, he also visited the library of the Casbah where the first two blessed martyrs of Algeria, Sister Paul-Hélène and Brother Henri Vergès, were killed on May 8, 1994.
