In his message to the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, currently taking place in Rimini, Italy, Pope Leo XIV drew attention to the exhibition on the martyrs of Algeria, through whom , he said, “the Church’s vocation shines forth: to dwell in the desert in deep communion with all humanity, overcoming the walls of mistrust that divide religions and cultures, fully imitating the incarnation and self-giving of the Son of God.”

The Pope underlined that “this way of presence and simplicity” is “the true path of mission.” It is a precious and particularly meaningful reminder, not only for those gathered in Rimini, but for the whole Church.

Mission, he insisted, is never “a form of self-display, in opposition of identities, but the gift of self, even to the point of martyrdom, by those who adore day and night, in joy and in tribulation, Jesus alone as Lord.”

The exhibition on the Algerian martyrs movingly shows how they gave themselves completely to the people among whom they lived: simply by sharing life with them in every way, bearing witness through fraternity, friendship, closeness, and practical help. Without seeking the spotlight, without worrying about numbers, without trusting in carefully planned strategies.

This is clear in a homily by Bishop Pierre Claverie, martyred in 1996. Shortly before being killed by Islamic fundamentalists, he was asked why he remained in Algeria despite the daily risk to his life. He replied: “Where is home for us? We are there because of this crucified Messiah. For no other reason, for no other person! We have no interests to defend, no influence to maintain…We have no power, but we are there like at the bedside of a friend, of a sick brother, in silence, holding his hand, wiping his forehead. Because of Jesus - because it is he who suffers, in that violence that spares no one, crucified again in the flesh of thousands of innocents.”

He went on: “Where should the Church of Jesus be - which is itself the Body of Christ - if not first of all there? I believe the Church dies precisely when it is not close enough to the cross of Jesus…The Church is mistaken, and deceives the world when it presents itself as one power among others, as an organisation - even a humanitarian one - or as a spectacular evangelical movement. It may shine, but it does not burn with the fire of God’s love.”

It is a sharp and sobering judgment: the Church dies when it drifts away from the cross of Jesus, when it becomes worldly and turns itself into an NGO, when it chases political and economic power, when it relies on numbers, when it imagines that evangelisation is simply repeating the name of Jesus Christ at every opportunity, instead of taking up the challenge of following him in the concreteness of life, in radical choices, in service to the least. The Church dies when it turns the proclamation of faith into a show, when it thinks it can shine with its own light, forgetting that it can only reflect the light of another.

The witness of the Algerian martyrs - so far from the self-centred protagonism of today - offers a challenge and a reminder of the essence of the Gospel, a sign of contradiction. It is telling that at the close of his message to the Meeting, Pope Leo XIV recalled Pope Francis and his teaching: the option for the poor is, before anything else, a theological category - not merely a cultural, sociological, political or philosophical one.

For God “chose the humble, the little ones, the powerless, and from the womb of the Virgin Mary became one of them, to write his story into our history. True realism, then, is that which includes those who see from another point of view, who grasp aspects of reality invisible from the centres of power where the weightiest decisions are made.”

It is in this way that the martyrs of Algeria bore witness until the end, mingling their Christian blood with that of the many Muslims who were victims of fundamentalism.