News of sentenced Catholic priest in Algeria reaches Qatar
Algiers (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A court in Algeria’s Oran region handed a French-born Catholic priest, Fr Pierre Wallez, a one-year suspended jail sentence for conducting a religious ceremony outside a building “intended for this purpose” as prescribed by law, this according to The Peninsula, Qatar’s English-language online paper.
Interviewed by Agence France Presse, Algiers’ Catholic Archbishop Mgr Henri Teissier criticised the sentenced. The prelate defended the priest against the charge of proselytism “because it was a matter of Cameroonian Christians” living in the area and called the court ruling an “erroneous application of the law.”
Pierre Wallez was convicted for conducting religious activity on 29 December among Cameroonian Christian migrants living in a slum. He prayed with them and did not celebrate Mass as claimed in the charges. He was convicted on the strength of a decree adopted on 21 March 2006 that regulates activities by religious minorities in the Muslim country.
The state religion in Algeria is Islam, and whilst freedom of religious faith is guaranteed by the constitution, proselytism—trying to make converts—is strictly banned.
The law punishes attempted conversions of Muslims with fines ranging from US$ 5,000 to 10,000 and jail sentences ranging from two to five years.
The Algerian government has also banned the production and distribution of written, audio and video material that might undermine Islam, and has decreed which buildings Christians can use for their religious activities.
Private homes are off-limit as far as worshipping is concerned and each new church requires prior authorisation to be built. Indeed the law mandates that worship take place only in structures that are identifiable from the outside.
In commenting the difficulties Christian communities face in Algeria, Monsignor Teissier told Vatican Radio that “our guests are systematically denied visa applications. In November the residence permits of four young Brazilian priests working among Portuguese-speaking African immigrants were taken away.”
Still the archbishop of Algiers is convinced that the regrettable episode involving Father Wallez “cannot cancel good relations built over years of collaboration in the cultural and social fields.”
Likewise the prelate denied claims that Algeria is turning into a country increasingly intolerant towards non-Muslims, a cradle of extremist movements.
As far as he is concerned it is wrong to think that the country’s Catholics are targeted. Indeed he sees them “as well integrated in Algeria’s social and cultural reality and this is already a form of dialogue among people of different religions.”
A missionary living in Algeria also told AsiaNews that the “relationship we have with people is good. The Catholic community in my diocese is made of 60 people counting priests, nuns and laity. We foreign Christians usually experience no restrictions on our freedom to worship.”
Christians in Algeria are a minority “and native-Algerians are very few.”
.png)
27/12/2021 14:43
12/04/2018 12:29
