Pope Leo XIV will travel next Monday to Algeria as part of his African tour.
Among the planned stops, there is one that concentrates the meaning of the trip: the visit to Bab El Oued, where two Spanish nuns were murdered in 1994 after deciding to remain in the country during the civil war.
It was not an improvised decision. Weeks earlier, the missionary Augustinians had faced a discernment that marked their destiny.
Violence against religious was increasing, and the possibility of leaving Algeria was on the table. It was a matter of choosing: leave or stay.
A decision made with full awareness
In early October 1994, the nuns gathered in Algiers with Archbishop Henri Teissier.
For several days, each one examined her personal situation and that of the community. No one was pressured. Both options were legitimate, but neither was neutral.
The threat was concrete.
As her superior would later recall, it was a triple exposure: for being foreigners, for being Christians, and for remaining there.
On October 7, one by one, they expressed their decision. All chose to stay. That choice was not left as a private gesture: it was assumed and celebrated in the Eucharist.
The murder on the way to Mass
Two weeks later, on October 23, Esther Paniagua and Caridad Álvarez set out for the World Mission Sunday celebration. They left before the rest, following security recommendations that advised against traveling together.
They did not arrive.
The shots were heard from the house. At first, the community thought it was another attack against Christians. They soon realized that the victims were them.
They died on the street, on the way to the Mass they were going to celebrate, in a gesture that the Church would later recognize as an authentic testimony of fidelity.
A context of sustained violence
Their murder occurred in an already deteriorated climate. Months earlier, other missionaries had been killed, leading the bishops to openly consider the possibility of abandoning the country.
The decision to stay had therefore been made with full knowledge of that context.
Years later, the Church recognized that testimony. Esther and Caridad are part of the 19 martyrs of Algeria, beatified in 2018.
Permanence after martyrdom
After decades of absence, the community was able to return to Bab El Oued. The house did not become a closed memorial. It was inhabited again.
Today it functions as a reception center for Algerian children and women. The activity has changed, but not the criterion that sustains it: to remain and serve where one is.
A small but present Church
The Pope’s visit is also inscribed in the current reality of the Church in Algeria. It is a reduced community - barely a few thousand faithful - dispersed in a vast territory and marked by its minority condition.
The presence of the Pontiff takes on a concrete meaning: it is not just about remembering the past, but about confirming a form of Christian presence that does not withdraw in the face of difficulty. To remain, even when everything invites one to leave.