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A Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to a year’s imprisonment in Algeria for leading a Christian worship service in a private home.Fr Pierre Wallez was convicted by a court in Oran for having violated Algeria’s anti-proselytism law.
Archbishop Henri Teissier of Algiers told Vatican Radio Fr Wallez led a prayer service in a private home on Dec 29, 2006, and had been jailed even though he had not celebrated the Eucharist.
On March 20, 2006 the Algerian Parliament passed Ordinance 06-03 which limited non-Muslim worship to specific buildings approved by the state, banning house churches and other non-registered religious gatherings.
The new law also banned proselytizing, instituting a sentence of up to five years and a fine of £7,500 for those found to have converted Muslims. The code also prescribes a five-year term of imprisonment for anyone who “incites, constrains, or utilizes means of seduction tending to convert a Muslim to another religion; or by using to this end establishments of teaching, education, health, social, culture, training… or any financial means."
Archbishop Teisser reported the tribunal had suspended Fr Wallez’s sentence, but a co-defendant --- a Muslim doctor, was jailed for two years for having accepted a gift of medicine from the Catholic charity Caritas for use in the Oran slum of Maghnia.
The government has put pressure on the Catholic Church in Algeria. "They systematically reject entrance visas for our delegates," the Archbishop told Avvenire, "and in November they withdrew the residency permission for four young Brazilian priests who were working with the Portuguese-speaking African immigrants.”
Fears of evangelical Christian proselytizing had led to a stiffening of laws in recent years Archbishop Tessier said, as some mission groups had “made something of a noise because of the conversion of some of the faithful."
The Algerian government also maintains a close hold over Sunni Islam, appointing all of the country’s mullahs and forbidding interpretations of Sharia law inconsistent with the government’s views.
Almost all of Algeria’s Christian and Jewish population fled the country in the 1960s after the FLN government of Ahmed Ben Bella took power from the French at independence. Most of the country’s remaining Christians and Jews left in the 1990s during the guerrilla war between the government and the Islamist terrorist group the Armed Islamist Group (GIA) that left over 100,000 dead.
However, an underground church centered primarily among the Kabyle or Berber people has arisen in recent years.
While no official count of their numbers are available, the number of Christian converts is believed to number about 70,000.
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