Arab and Maghreb bishops appointed to transform the Catholic Church to national and local: Meeting in Algeria to review its role in the region

Archbishops of the Catholic churches in the Maghreb countries will meet in Algeria here on Saturday for five days.

Organizers of this meeting said it is special and will be devoted to fundamental review of the role and work of the oldest and largest Christian churches in the region, after more than a century and half of existence, under new social, political, and legal circumstances, noticing recently some tensions and conflicts with the Maghreb Islamic institutions.

The meeting will also adopt a symposium called “North Africa Archbishops” to be organized periodically in one of the Maghreb countries”.

The final report culminated, in the former meeting in Rabat, a lot of references and observations that reflect state of anxiety among Catholic bishops who said that time has come to prepare a document that would represent a basic reference on the meaning of existence and role of the Catholic Church in the Arab Maghreb countries, depending on the work to be realized in the future.

“Challenges faced by the Catholic Church, including legal problems and the decline of its role in these countries after dominating for almost three decades, are all points of the bishops’ agenda to be discussed during the meeting in Algeria from January 29 to February 3, 2011.

First point to be discussed in the “Review of the role and existence of the Catholic Church” in the Maghreb region is the creation of conditions to turn into a “local” in order to get rid of its status as a “global” imposed by the conditions of independence and the decline of religious activity because of immigration of elderly. The “Global” status of the Catholic Church then turns it to a kind of humanitarian body leading and coordinating activity of dozens of educational and social institutions which it inherited from the colonial era, addressing its cervices primarily to Muslims, as it became no longer frequented for worship but for tourism, work or residence.

However, this situation changed during the last two decades, and the church saw itself in a road of transformation from “global” to “local”, for many reasons and objectives, and stained with the color, language and culture of the region.

The new legislations which occurred in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, opened the door for naturalization and facilitated obtaining a long or permanent residence permit, in front of several categories of foreigners, who had no right to do so before.

In Algeria, such circumstances allowed the establishment of two new catholic churches. The first includes about 1500 Lebanese Maronite and the second more than 500 Egyptian Copts. Several embassies, including Greek and British opened chapels inside their headquarters attracting some fellows of Christian sects who had no legal church in Algeria, like Orthodox and Anglican churches, as well as the Protestant Church, which gained legal legitimacy in Algeria since 1972.