The Pope in Algeria
One thing Trump’s brouhaha with the Pope has done is to cause me to pay more attention to Pope Leo – not just his statements with which Trump took issue, but his other activities.
For example, there’s his recent trip to Algeria. It’s pretty shocking, and has caused me to think that Leo is even more to the left than his predecessor Francis, and that’s saying something:
In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today [April 17], as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews. 99% of the population of what was one of the old territories of Christianity are Sunni Muslims.
Was Islam so popular that all the Christians and Jews decided to convert? They were persecuted, murdered, tortured and driven out by Islamic violence in our lifetimes.
Christians and Jews had lived in Algeria since Roman times. Now they’re gone.
And the perpetrators of the genocide are being praised by Pope Leo XIV.
One small quibble – I’m not sure I would call it a “genocide.” The reason is that it involved only the country of Algeria – although the effort was indeed part of a similar occurrence in other Arab and North African Muslim countries, and the impulse was and remains genocidal. So perhaps the word does apply after all, although I think in general the word is way overused.
More from the article:
Alongside paying tribute to the 19 Martyrs of Algeria, beatified in 2018, priests, monks and nuns, including 7 beheaded monks and 2 nuns murdered on the way to mass, by Islamic terrorists who later received amnesty for their crimes from the Algerian government, Pope Leo also paid tribute to the Jihadis at their memorial.
Pope Leo visited Algeria’s so-called Martyrs’ Monument, “Maqam Echahid,” located above the El Mujahid or Jihadi Museum, erected by former Islamic-Socialist terrorist dictator Houari Boumédiène who had headed the ALN, one of whose specialties was the “Smile of Kabylie” in which the tongue was pulled through a slit throat, and which was responsible for the Oran Massacre of Christians and Jews that ethnically cleansing a formerly non-Muslim city. …
Pope Leo XIV visited the Jihadi site and in his remarks claimed that “our presence here at this monument pays tribute to this history of Algeria and to the very spirit of a people who fought for the independence, dignity and sovereignty of this nation.”
Praising the Arab Muslim terrorists who had set out to eliminate Christianity from Algeria, the pontiff declared that “they lost their lives but in doing so, they gave them up for the love of their own people. May their example sustain the people of Algeria and all of us on our journey, for true freedom is not merely inherited, it is chosen anew every day.”
The “love of their own people” was based on a fervent hatred of all non-Muslims, acted out through horrible atrocities, including the deliberate murder of children.
Not collateral damage; deliberate.
Is this an example on the Pope’s part of extreme forgiveness, or of mere politics, or of fearful appeasement in hopes that more Catholics aren’t hurt by Muslims? Why was this trip even necessary, and what does the Pope think he’s accomplishing?
Rather than address what had actually happened, Pope Leo insisted on pretending that there was nothing religious about Christian clergy being massacred by Muslim terrorists, contending that “In the face of hatred and violence, they remained faithful to charity even to the point of sacrificing themselves alongside many other men and women, Christians and Muslims.” …
Visiting the Great Mosque of Algiers, erected by former terrorist dictator Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who had provided amnesty to all members of the Armed Islamic Group, the Jihadist group responsible for the murder of Christian clergy, including nuns and a bishop, Pope Leo praised the gargantuan monstrosity as a “place of prayer” from which “we can learn to respect one another, live in harmony and build a world of peace.”
Perhaps a case of extreme wishful thinking – or overwhelming belief in the power of prayer to do good and change minds?
In one of his recent statements about Pope Leo, Trump said something very interesting, something relevant that I think reflects on the difference between the “things that are Caesar’s and the things that are God’s.” It was this [emphasis mine]:
The president added that he’s “sure the pope is a great guy,” yet he suggested Pope Leo XIV was naive about geopolitics.
“The pope has to understand that this is the real world,” Trump said.
Also , from Melanie Phillips [emphasis mine]:
On several occasions, [the Pope has] expressed sorrow over the victims of repeated such massacres in Nigeria and called on the authorities to protect all citizens. But he’s never called out the Islamic world for the attempt by Islamists to exterminate Christianity itself.
While the pope attacks America for waging war against Islamists, he fails to attack Islamists for their persecution and murder of Christians. He said instead last year that people should be “a little less fearful” of Islam, and this week that “Islam is a religion of peace we can learn from.”
On his visit to Algeria, immediately after the row with Trump, he appeared to promote an alliance between Muslims and Christians by signing the “Golden Book” ceremonial guestbook in the great mosque in Algiers and declaring it “a space proper to God.”
He also praised Algeria’s “rich diversity” and spoke about the importance of reciprocal respect and respecting the dignity of every person.
He thus totally ignored Algeria’s repression of Christians. The 2026 Open Doors World Watch List says that 47 churches of the Protestant Church of Algeria have been closed by the authorities, and the list puts the country in 20th place for Christian persecution around the world.
The pope said before his Algeria trip that his aim was to build “bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world.” But building bridges between sheep and wolves merely provides the wolves with an easier way to tear the sheep to pieces.
I can’t argue with that.
Not a Catholic, but I married into a Catholic family of Italian and Irish. I think this pope and his predecessor are the true wolves in sheep’s clothing. Leftist infiltration to destroy one of the world’s more traditional Christian religions.
It’s been going on for sometime, starting of course with academia where traditional catholic colleges have become CINOs over the last several decades.
He’s just another Progressive who thinks all sins are sins of the Western “oppressor”. Thus, obsequiousness to the real oppressors.
In Marxist terms, he’s a useful idiot.
Islam is a religion of violence.
Islam delenda est.
I am a Johnny-come-lately Catholic. From an atheist/Protestant family, I have an inquiring mind, did my homework, including a careful read of Paul Johnson’s fine History of Christianity, and became a convert to Roman Catholicism at an advanced age.
Catholic Christianity begat Western Civilization. Yes, it did. Chew on that, you disbelievers.
I’m with Trump and Melanie Phillips on this. What world is Pope Leo living in?
I am personally acquainted with Christians living in the Muslim countries of North Africa. They do try to work with Muslim neighbors towards living in peace with them wherever possible — without compromising their faith. Their churches have Muslim converts, about which they have to be quiet, because it’s very dangerous. What they DON’T do is pretend that Islam and Christianity are just the same. The Pope is undercutting Christians living in Muslim countries. Shame on him.
Not a lion of God it appears. He too will pass.
This pope is starting to get on my nerves.
Cicero, what you say MAY be true, but this idiot pope had nothing to do with that. He sides with the savages from the 7th century
“Islam is a religion of peace we can learn from.” Robert Francis Prevost aka ‘pope’ leo
It is not possible to have even a cursory familiarity with Islam’s tenets and still believe that to be true.
“a French think tank (Fondapol) tracked Islamic terrorist attacks going back to 1979. From 1979 through April 2024, they identified 66,872 attacks killing at least 249,941 people — with the vast majority of that activity occurring after 9/11″
Sounds like we took a similar trip CICERO, but I converted when I was in my mid 30’s. You’re right about Johnson’s History of Christianity. His History of the Jews is great too. In fact, just read anything by Paul Johnson you can.
I recall an Anglican bishop in Turkey blathering on about how well Christians and Muslims get along.
* Never mind that Istanbul was once Constantinople, the center of the Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
* Never mind that now Christians are barely 0.2% of the population of Turkey.
* Never mind that now Jews barely exist at all in Turkey.
Yes, Turkish Muslims get along well with Christians and Jews once Muslims have virtually extinguished them.
The reason there were more than a million Catholics in Algeria in 1955 but hardly around 8000 today is that in 1955 there were around a million French people in Algeria, most of them born there.
Algeria has been a colony of France since 1830s. After 1962, when Algeria was granted independence following a bloody and beastly war, most of the French Algerians, pied-noirs, as they were known, fled Algeria for good.
Hence the huge difference in numbers.
Cicero
What are you talking about?
Huxley
Christianity does not handle outright evil very well. Prisoners of the “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” ethos.
Among the many appeals to me of Catholicism is its depth and history. If you were a brilliant mind before, say, 1550, you studied theology. I’m convinced that Aquinas and Augustine were the equivalent of Einstein and Newton, and maybe Anselm = Dirac, extending the analogy. Of course I read the bible, but for me to think I’m going to understand the bible and scripture better than Aquinas and Augustine, is a bit like me thinking I’m going to understand physics better then Einstein and Newton. That said, I love to read physics. Anyway, if I need guidance on religion/theology I know where to turn.
Richard Cook, there is no Western Civilization without Christianity.
Western Civ = Judeo/Christian + Greco/Roman.
Richard Cook @7:57pm:
If you do not know what I’m talking about, I can’t help you.
Mike Plaiss gets it. Bless you, Mike.
You can’t sugarcoat evil by praising it as redemptive. Evil is evil. Now it all makes sense why the Pope popped off on Trump about Iran. He thinks Iran is somehow just a Pope speech away from becoming Heaven on Earth.
@Davemay: I think you also get it. Just when the Judeo and the Greco started may be open to debate, perhaps in the 800 to 1000 BCE time slot?
But radically augmented by Francis Bacon and a focus on learning about the reality of God’s laws via solid empirical experimentation and discussion.
Then somewhere between Darwin and Lord Kelvin and Einstein and Crick and Watson, and a few dozen other lights, the scripture of the OT and NT became more mystical, mythical, and allegorical, but it appears to be no less helpful to its core purpose than before.
Anyone who calls Islam a religion of peace is a fool, knave, or both!
Another abomination from Chicago.
So the Pope is a Chicago Democrat. That explains a lot.
Useful idiot is a good description
The Pope’s theological education began at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Founded in 1968, influenced by 60’s radicalism and inspired by the Second Vatican Council it’s not surprising he’s more comfortable with the principles of liberation theology than he is with traditional catholic teaching. With notable alumni such as Saleha Jabin, the first female Muslim chaplain in the DOD (now DOW), it’s little wonder how his theological views were formed.
Born into a Roman Catholic family. Educated exclusively in Catholic schools, graduated from Notre Dame. After all that, I knew a lot about the catholic church but little about Christianity or its source book, The Bible. I was no more a Christian than is the current pope. It’s the “Five Solas” for me, thanks. At the very least, it spares me the embarassment of acknowledging a pure apostate like this Leo is the soi disant “vicar of Christ” and the titular head of my church.
Just thought I would add Daniel Greenfieldhttps://www.danielgreenfield.org/2026/04/pope-leo-celebrates-christian-genocide.html#more.
in 1955 there were around a million French people in Algeria, most of them born there.
==
The pieds noirs were from Mediterranean Europe generally, commonly Italian or Spanish.
Bishops are NGO administrators and I suspect if you carefully question some randomly selected bishops and their staffs, you’d discover the distribution of opinion therein wasn’t much different from that of your local state college.
I post this from six doors down from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago!
My DIL parks her car in their parking lot.
Cradle Catholic–twelve years of daily religion class.
This Pope is a Marist globalist–absolutely not question
NO educated Catholic doesn’t know about Just War from about sixth grade on–except, apparently, this Chicago Leftist installed Pope.
Who, thanks to DJT, is exposed for all to see.
“In 1955, Algeria had over 1 million Catholics and 140,000 Jews. Today [April 17], as Pope Leo visits Algeria, there are some 8,000 Catholics in Algeria and there are fewer than 200 Jews.”
Not about the Pope, but it is exactly this kind if statistic that I try to point out when people yammer on about Palestinian’s right to return. The right to return must be BOTH sides (Palestinians AND Jews) in order to be fair.
All across North Africa and through out the Middle East Jews were forced from their homes in places where their families had lived for centuries. How about their right to return (or compensation for what they lost)?
As for this pope, Neo, I am afraid that you are right in that he is further left than his predecessor. Hopefully, it doesn’t give his voice more listeners; but, rather it makes folks see him as more irrelevant and that what he says is of little value.
“Then somewhere between Darwin and Lord Kelvin and Einstein and Crick and Watson, and a few dozen other lights, the scripture of the OT and NT became more mystical, mythical, and allegorical, but it appears to be no less helpful to its core purpose than before.” -R2L
Quite the contrary. As we’ve gained new insights, the gap between the material and non-material has shrunk.
The key claim of Christianity is very specific. Jesus was raised from the dead.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, describes the essence of Christianity. He certainly describes it plainly.
Earlier in the chapter, he lists the people that saw Jesus after the crucifixion.
@ lee >”NO educated Catholic doesn’t know about Just War from about sixth grade on–except, apparently, this Chicago Leftist installed Pope.
Who, thanks to DJT, is exposed for all to see.”
Cue the Streisand effect.
(I found so many interesting articles, I’m making a separate comment for them.)
Trump may have gotten the final mic drop with this response, on April 17.
https://www.belgrade-news.com/townnews/politics/tell-that-to-the-pope-trump-pope-leo-keep-up-their-row-over-u-s/article_d902cfca-bc8d-487f-9e52-9d340b7b58ae.html
*******
I have never heard of the Belgrade News before**, but they were the only post on the first-page of my search for Trump’s line, despite a plethora of news reports on the kerfluffle itself. Most of those were from the left (of course) and had slanted headlines (of courser), but this one from CBS did cover a lot of material I hadn’t seen before; and, although it omitted the full text of the Pope’s message that started the whole thing, it did include the “God doesn’t hear the prayers” reference and linked to the pontificate’s Xweet on March 29.
https://x.com/Pontifex/status/2038209125646016547
As many have pointed out, including Neo and the Neophiles (new band!), “Those who wage war” are not the target of the prophet Isaiah’s words; he is addressing rebellious ancient Jews who are disobeying God’s commandments.
(See yet another separate comment.)
In fairness to Pope Leo, he says that some of his remarks were prepared long before Trump first attacked Iran, and were not intended to refer to him. YMMV.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-dispute-trump-pope-leo-escalated/
Well, he got that right.
As several pundits have observed: in this affair, “the Pope shot first.”
Per my good buddy from Wyoming: Don’t start none, won’t be none.
**Now it all makes sense: “The Belgrade News is grateful and honored to be the primary source of quality local news in the central and western areas of the Gallatin Valley in Southwest Montana.”
The Pope’s “Prayer Meeting for Peace” was April 11.
https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/pope-leo-issues-fiery-plea-peace-prayer-vigil-enough-war
Now I’m not sure how the tit-for-tat timeline really works out.
I sure wish more reporters would add dates to their stories, instead of just saying things like “last Wednesday” or “a couple of days ago” and so forth.
In re The Streisand Effect – maybe look at who’s looking at the offending posts before going off the rails?
The reputationx post had some interesting and potential useful information that the “definition” sites don’t include. All of them include examples beyond Barbra’s lawyers’ ill-fated lawfare.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Streisand-effect
https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/ultimate-guide-streisand-effect-fallacies-biases
https://www.reputationx.com/blog/what-is-the-streisand-effect
In re the scripture bashing observations about Pope Leo’s Xtweet (which is the label I’ve often heard applied to disputants pulling quotes out of context to beat each other with).
I think it’s worth quoting more of the scripture passage, for the record.
It does lend some credence to the theory that Pope Leo was extending Isaiah’s remarks to “those who wage war,” given that he has already criticized Trump’s domestic policies, which the Leftists often assign to the categories referred to herein, not that many of them actually believe in God or His justice.
(See the first part of the CBS post above. I thought it was interesting that the CBS reporters got the wrong pope in part of the write-up.)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%201&version=NIV
AesopFan, on Neo’s post on the ‘your hands are full of blood’ quote from the Pope, I commented that I suspect he had already queued up a broadside based on the first portion of Isaiah 1 that you quoted above, and the imagery from verse 15 was just too good wrt the ongoing kinetic action in Iran for him to pass up taking a shot at Trump (and Vance and Hegseth), even if he knew the context didn’t fit.
(It also helps if one assumes that the folks in one’s—global—audience are scriptural illiterates…)
File under: Gosh, can’t the President take a…metaphor!?
@ Christopher B – thanks, I thought I had seen that comment on one of Neo’s posts.
If true, I hope the Pope and his team have learned that the internet era does not allow anyone a pass for taking important points out of context.
Blogs and commenters are kind of like X’s “community notes” spread over multiple outlets.
Here’s a news story about the later remarks made by the Pope, and a link to a local news report about his African trip.
h/t Sarah Hoyt & a commenter at Instapundit this morning.
https://instapundit.com/791092/
https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-leo-says-remarks-world-ravaged-handful-tyrants-aimed-trump-report
https://www.fides.org/en/news/77580-LEO_XIV_IN_AFRICA_Pope_Leo_Woe_to_those_who_manipulate_religion_and_the_very_name_of_God_for_their_own_military_economic_or_political_gain
And those bridges will be built on Jewish gravestones.
Speaking of Leo and the Internet, there’s this. And this should be bigger if it is true.
https://bigmodernism.substack.com/p/leo-xiv-joined-a-communist-march
At the time while the Italian Communist Party was probably the most reformist of the Moscow line European Communist Parties with its “Eurocommunism” it was still a vanguard party and client of Moscow with a brutally hostile relationship to the Catholic Church and basically any cleric going to Italy was made sure to be informed about it. So marching with them specifically was an awful look and set you apart from the typical Christian, even among the sort of Christian Pacifist types.
It would also make the glazing of the genocidal scumbags in the FLN and their somehow more Islamist splinter factions part of a pattern.
Again, if this photo is true and actually depicts a young Prevost, it would also be an inoculation to the TDS. So while Baghdad Bauxite seems to have been unusually quiet lately (perhaps getting to the culinary crow backlog?) this along with a basic chronology should nuke* the “Trump started a fight with the Pope” argument from orbit and remove the idea that Trump was somehow special in regards to Leo’s politics or hostility to conservative American Presidents.