Monks of Tibhirine of Algeria

Memories of the Seven Atlas Martyrs come to mind at 21 May each year.
During this month our Chapter community reading, before Compline, has been from the Ten Monastic Journeys in the book, “Touched by God”. The chapter, “The Most Unexpected Places” contributed by Fr. Martin McGee, OSB, monk of Work Abbey, tells us of how the story of the Monks of Tibhirine of Algeria has been a powerful inspiration in his monastic life.

Excerpts from “The Most Unexpected Places”:

. . .Who could ever have imagined that almost a half-century later I would, as a monk and priest of Worth Abbey, look out of an aeroplane window on Thursday, 7 April 2005 and, with growing excitement, see the Algerian coastline for the first time just as a brutal civil war was petering out. On my return to Worth I wrote to Mgr Henri Teissier, Archbishop of Algiers, to thank him for la plus belle semaine de ma vie - the best week of my life. How could that be, you may ask? Was this sentence an example of my Celtic tendency to exaggerate? I am not sure that a clear answer can be given. As a Francophile, the love-hate relationship of the French people with Algeria had drawn me to that country. Above all, however, I had been drawn there by the 19 Christian martyrs who had offered their lives (1994--96) out of love for a Muslim people. In a sense I was on a pilgrimage to discover the source of this love which ultimately flows from Jesus' love for us, a love which impelled him freely to offer his life on our behalf So perhaps here was to be found the deepest motivation for my strange interest and journey, and also my motivation for becoming a monk. . .

A Growing Fascination with Algeria
. . . The missionary instinct has always been part of the English Benedictine Congregation since its re-foundation on the Continent in the seventeenth century. In a rather unexpected way my missionary instinct has found in recent years an outlet through contact with the Algerian Church. The kidnapping of the seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine, a monastery located about 60 miles south of Algiers, in March 1996 by the CIA, an Islamic armed group, made media headlines throughout the world. Strangely enough, I can't recall following the story. In fact the plight of the Christian remnant in Algeria only gradually gripped my imagination, and the person responsible for this was Mgr Henri Teissier, Archbishop of Algiers. On 12 January 1997 The Tablet carried an interview with Mgr Teissier which deeply impressed me. I sensed something of his love for the Algerian people and his conviction that the Gospel was truly Good News, something of ultimate importance. The journalist wrote that he ‘was moved by [his] visit to a priest of such dedication and fortitude'. Algeria at this time was caught up in a ruthless civil war between the Islamic fundamentalists who wished to impose the Sharia, or Islamic law, and a military-backed government. Mgr Teissier’s courage and desire to stay alongside the Algerian people in their hour of need touched me.
I then forgot about the article and got on with the demands of being school chaplain and living the monastic round. During the school holiday's I suddenly felt inspired to write a word of support to Archbishop Teissier. I didn't have his address and just sent my short letter to the Archeveque d' Alger, Alger, Algeria and promptly forgot all about it. To my surprise a few months later a reply arrived written on behalf of the Archbishop by Fr John MacWilIiam, a former student of Worth School. I didn't know that Fr John, a White Father, was in Algeria so this added another twist to the plot.
Discovering this unknown link with Algeria whetted my interest. John came to visit Worth School and monastery on a few occasions and so my interest grew. In the summer of 2004 I visited the Tibhirine community which had regrouped in Morocco after the beheading of seven of their members in 1996. Worries about travelling on my own to the unknown world of North Africa were lessening and, encouraged by some of my monastic brethren, I decided that the time was ripe for a visit, or rather a pilgrimage, to the Algerian Church. So I emailed two people in Algiers, putting out feelers about the possibility of spending some time there. The first request received no reply. The second, sent a few weeks later, also drew a blank. The silence was ominous. I decided that I would have to give up this dream as it wasn't meant to be. The Lord wasn't in it. Shortly after resigning myself to not going to Algeria, I received an email horn Mgr Teissier inviting me to come and stay with him at the Diocesan House: 'We will welcome you with great joy'. The second person whom I had emailed had forwarded my letter to the Archbishop. So my prayers had been answered but only after I had first accepted an apparent 'No'.
I made my first visit to Algeria in April 2005, and in meeting Mgr Teissier, the people and clergy, I was energized by their love far and warm relationships with their Muslim brothers and sisters. I had drunk at the pure fountain of the Gospel message in all its wonderful simplicity. A second and more demanding visit followed in March/April 2006. At Archbishop Teissier’s suggestion I have written a book about the 19 martyrs, (Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People. Paulist Press, forthcoming), 19 lives freely given out of love for their Muslim brothers and sisters. This contact with a Church of martyrs, a Church which loves and is greatly loved by her Muslim friends, has been a deep source of inspiration for me. I have no idea where this interest will lead as visiting Algeria isn't easy. At the very least my three short visits to North Africa have given mc the ability to sec Muslims as fellow believers and as brothers and sisters made in the image and likeness of the one God. A monastic vocation can lead you to the most unexpected places!

“Touched by God: Ten Monastic Journeys”,

includes Fr. Martin McGee, OSB, monk of Work Abbey.
Edit L. Johns OSB,

Continuum International Publishing Group – Burns & Oats 10 April 2008.

Book:

“Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People” is written by Father Martin McGee, an English Benedictine monk of Worth Abbey.
(Publisher: Paulist Press, Publication Date: 2 September 2008)

Tells the moving story of the nineteen priests and sisters who were assassinated in Algeria between 1994 and 1996 during a reign of terror by Islamic fundamentalists

Synopsis
In the mid 1990s, Algerian society was terrorized by the GIA (The Armed Islamic Group), a fundamentalist organization that had given an ultimatum to all foreigners : depart or die. At the time, the beheading of seven Trappist monks at the Tibherine monastery was widely reported in the world press. This book tells their story, but also tells the story of twelve other priests and religious sisters who, like the Monks of Tibherine, had courageously chosen to stay in Algeria despite the threat, and who ultimately paid for their dedication with their lives. Drawing on letters, journals, and his own interviews with people who knew the nineteen religious, the author shows how they operated schools, performed vital medical assistance, sponsored community gardens, taught trades, prepared students for state examinations, and maintained libraries mainly in poor neighborhoods and rural villages. By witnessing Christ in their actions without ever attempting to make converts, the nineteen martyrs won the love of the Algerian people, a love that did not cease with their deaths.

19 Algeria Martyrs

The Promotrix, M. Augusta, of the Trappist (OCSO) Order, has reported that the Seven Atlas Brothers of Tibhirine are now included in the 19 Martyrs of Algeria.

These details are to be found in this Website.

http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Algeria.htm

PIERRE-LUCIEN CLAVERIE AND 18 COMPANIONS

FROM THE CLERGY AND RELIGIOUS

OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ALGERIA

competent diocese: Algiers

CCS protocol number: 2702

type of cause: martyrdom

competentia fori: 05 July 2006 (from the diocese of Oran)

nihil obstat: 31 March 2007

opening of diocesan inquiry: 05 October 2007

closing of diocesan inquiry:

decree of validity of diocesan inquiry:

consignment of Positio to CCS:

meeting of theological consultors:

congregation of CCS cardinals and bishops:

postulator: Frt. Giovanni Bigotto, fms

petitioner: Archdiocèse d’Alger, 13 rue Khélifa-Boukhalfa, 16000 Alger-Gare, ALGERIA

19

Algeria - 19 Martyrs

The seven monks from Atlas – 13th Anniversary of the martyrs of Tibhirine, May 21, 2009.

On May 21, 1996, seven monks of the Cistercian-Trappist monastery of Our Lady of Atlas in Algeria died by assassination at the hands of terrorists: Fr. Christian de Chergé, Br. Luc Dochier, Fr. Christophe Lebreton, Br. Paul Favre-Miville, Br. Michel Fleury, Fr. Bruno Lemarchand, and Fr. Célestin Ringeard.

As we prepare for the Abbatial election at Nunraw we direct our prayers urgently to the Atlas Brothers to help our future.

At the Trappist General Chapter Assisi 2008 there was a Report of the Activities of Postulator 2005-2008. The Postultrix, M. Augusta explains that the number of causes for Beatification are mostly under the responsibility of various dioceses. She says:

In regard to the seven monks from Atlas and for the other twelve martyrs of Algeria the diocesan process began at Algiers on October s" 2007 under the responsibility of the diocese. There have already been several sessions to question witnesses there. Since it is a question of a cause related to 19 martyrs killed in seven different circumstances, the process will take a long time. There are numerous witnesses, a difficult political situation and a new Archbishop. But what the postulators and the persons responsible in the 8 Congregations wanted was to begin the work so as not to lose the witnesses. There is no hurry to have a Beatification. We are working to classify everything about the lives of our brothers and sisters: witnesses, letters that can be found etc. because we think that it is our duty to keep and spread the remembrance of the martyrs of Algeria with the certainty that in so doing we are remembering all the other innocent victims of this terrible page of Algerian history. In regard to the death of our brothers the Congregation for the Saints is well informed and it follows closely everything that is published in the press.

Regine Coeli prayer after Holy Land Pilgrimage

Pope packed summary

Pilgrim's Report

Papal Pilgrimage Ends With a Bang
Benedict XVI Sums Up Message in Packed Address

By Father Thomas D. Williams, LC

JERUSALEM, MAY 15, 2009 (Zenit.org).- As I write this, Benedict XVI is flying back to Rome, having left Tel Aviv Airport less than an hour ago. Yet it turns out that his final send-off at the airport entailed more than a perfunctory adieu.

Benedict took advantage of his last meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres to reiterate the key messages of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This Pope -- whom many consider incapable of uttering a sound bite -- managed to condense his week’s message into an 859-word address that lasted no more than three minutes. Somehow in this brief interval he was able to encapsulate the gist of the 29 different encounters that he had throughout this action-packed week. It seemed as if he were back in the university classroom once again, summing up his day’s lecture to keep his more distracted students on track.

He wasted no time in getting back to the thorny issue of Catholic-Jewish relations, noting first how Christianity had grown out of Judaism. Benedict made reference to the olive tree that he and President Peres had planted together in the garden of the presidential palace earlier in the week. He drew a parallel to Saint Paul’s use of the olive tree as an image to express how the Christian Church was “grafted onto the cultivated olive tree which is the People of the Covenant.” In words that could only facilitate Jewish-Christian dialogue, he reminded his hearers: “We are nourished from the same spiritual roots. We meet as brothers, brothers who at times in our history have had a tense relationship, but now are firmly committed to building bridges of lasting friendship.”

From there Benedict moved to Monday’s Yad Vashem encounter, where the Holy Father had paid his respects to the many Jews who lost their lives in the Shoah as well as meeting with six Holocaust survivors. As if in answer to his critics who thought that Benedict had showed too little emotion at the meeting, the Pope called the encounter “deeply moving” and went on to evoke the memory of his visit three years earlier to the death camp at Auschwitz “where so many Jews -- mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends -- were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred.”

To put the final nail in the coffin, especially after his much-criticized lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust-denier Richard Williamson, the Pope stated: “That appalling chapter of history must never be forgotten or denied.”

That wasn’t the end of the emotions, however, as Benedict went on to use moving language in referring to the strife that still exists between Israelis and Palestinians. Benedict called himself a “friend of the Israelis,” as well as “a friend of the Palestinian people” and went on to say that no friend “can fail to weep at the suffering and loss of life that both peoples have endured over the last six decades.”

In the strongest language of his entire visit, Benedict made an impassioned appeal: “No more bloodshed! No more fighting! No more terrorism! No more war! Instead let us break the vicious circle of violence. Let there be lasting peace based on justice, let there be genuine reconciliation and healing.”

To put the final nail in the coffin, especially after his much-criticized lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust-denier Richard Williamson, the Pope stated: “That appalling chapter of history must never be forgotten or denied.”

That wasn’t the end of the emotions, however, as Benedict went on to use moving language in referring to the strife that still exists between Israelis and Palestinians. Benedict called himself a “friend of the Israelis,” as well as “a friend of the Palestinian people” and went on to say that no friend “can fail to weep at the suffering and loss of life that both peoples have endured over the last six decades.”

In the strongest language of his entire visit, Benedict made an impassioned appeal: “No more bloodshed! No more fighting! No more terrorism! No more war! Instead let us break the vicious circle of violence. Let there be lasting peace based on justice, let there be genuine reconciliation and healing.”

Again, to leave no doubts what all this means in practical terms, Benedict declared his intentions in the clearest of terms. First, to those who still dispute Israel’s right to exist as a state, Benedict stated: “Let it be universally recognized that the State of Israel has the right to exist, and to enjoy peace and security within internationally agreed borders.” Yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had requested that the Pope denounce Iran on Israel’s behalf, especially regarding Iran’s repudiation of Israeli statehood. While avoiding mentioning Iran by name, Benedict lost no time in doing just that.

Moving on to the flip side of the relation, he said: “Let it be likewise acknowledged that the Palestinian people have a right to a sovereign independent homeland, to live with dignity and to travel freely. Let the two-state solution become a reality, not remain a dream.”

If anyone still harbored doubts regarding Benedict XVI’s political aspirations for the Holy Land, this clear statement should leave little room for doubt. His final appeal, in fact, made the next practical step more concrete still. Returning to a theme that he had broached on Wednesday in Bethlehem, Benedict called the wall separating Palestinians from Israelis “one of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands.” Acknowledging “how hard it will be to achieve that goal,” Benedict said that he had prayed, and that Catholics would continue to pray, “for a future in which the peoples of the Holy Land can live together in peace and harmony without the need for such instruments of security and separation.”

For anyone looking for a concise summary of Benedict’s weeklong trip to the Holy Land, and especially the second leg in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Benedict himself provided the material. Benedict’s goodwill and intentions are evident. It remains to be seen what kind of reception this message will receive in the hearts of his hearers.

Israel President bids farewell to Pope

Yad Vashem & Pius xii

Entrance: Yad Vashem Holocaust Monument Memorial

Pilgrim's Report
By Father Thomas D. Williams, LC

Forgiving Sometimes Means Forgetting
The Pope's Unique Role in the Holy Land

JERUSALEM, MAY 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI left Jerusalem for Bethlehem early this morning amidst further carping from the locals; I couldn't help but raise my heart to God in gratitude for this gentle, German Pope. I realized just how unique his mission is in this faction-torn land of continual squabbles over everything from land to doctrinal minutiae.

The fact is that the Holy Father didn't come to the Holy Land to play party politics, not even for his own "party." He didn't come merely as a representative of the Catholic Church, but truly on behalf of everyone involved, on behalf of humanity itself.

Benedict speaks on behalf of the Jews, praising their religious heritage and defending their right to security and self-rule. He speaks on behalf of Palestinians and their right to sovereignty and freedom. He speaks on behalf of Muslims, calling them to the best of their religious tradition with its deep religious convictions and heartfelt worship of the one God. He speaks for Christians in their difficult status as a tiny, suffering minority of the population. In a word, he speaks to all and for all.

And this is the singularity of the Pope's voice and message. Paradoxically, amidst all the manipulation of Benedict XVI's message and all the complaints that he doesn't side closely enough with any one group, we see the greatness and uniqueness of his presence here. No other leader in the world can speak with the same moral authority or true impartiality. His very refusal to play partisan politics is why his message is so often rejected, and why it is so desperately important.

Meanwhile, one of those raising the biggest stink over the Pope's supposed lack of remorse for the Shoah is Rabbi Ysrael Meir Lau, chairman of the Yad Vashem memorial. He criticized the Pope's speech as being "devoid of any compassion, any regret, any pain over the horrible tragedy of the six million victims." If you happened to see the broadcast, Lau was the fellow off to the Pope's right looking as if he had recently eaten something particularly disagreeable to his stomach.

It turns out that Rabbi Lau is no stranger to criticism of the papacy. He has also been a tireless disparager of Pope Pius XII, even when this means distorting the truth. During the 1998 Berlin commemorations of the 60th anniversary of Kristallnacht -- the Nov. 9, 1938, event that sparked the era of Jewish persecutions in Germany -- Lau, then chief rabbi of Israel, was invited to speak. During his impassioned address he asked the damning question, "Pius XII, where were you? Why were you silent during the Kristallnacht?" The next day two Italian newspapers ran that title, with the subheading, "The Shameful Silence of Pius XII." The only problem with this was that Pius XII was not elected until March 1939, four months after Kristallnacht. Yet I haven't seen Rabbi Lau rushing to express remorse for his defamation of Pope Pius.

On my flight over to Israel I had the chance to re-read Benedict XVI's candid autobiography "Milestones." I was struck once again by how his own childhood was viciously interrupted by Hitler's rise to power, and how so many good German people have been unfairly tarred with a Nazi brush. If Benedict's critics are to be believed, anyone living in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s is necessarily guilty by association.

Fortunately, some important Jewish voices are beginning to be heard in Jerusalem inviting critics to lay off the Pope. For instance, Noah Frug, the head of the Consortium of Holocaust Survivors' Organizations in Israel, said the criticism directed at the Pontiff was exaggerated. "He came here to bring the Church and Judaism closer together, and we should consider his visit positive and important," Frug added.

Today attention has shifted to Bethlehem, the City of David and birthplace of Jesus Christ, but also a part of the Palestinian Territories. On arriving to Bethlehem, Benedict XVI lost no time in expressing his heartfelt solidarity with the suffering Palestinians, and in affirming the Holy See's position regarding their right to sovereignty. "Mr. President, the Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders," he said.

In theory this should provoke no disagreement, since the official position of the State of Israel coincides with that of the Holy See. Israel, too, affirms the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign homeland, once such an arrangement can be feasibly worked out without detriment to Israel's security. Of course, there's the rub.

Here in the Holy Land I have spoken with a number of people of diverse backgrounds and experiences, and the one thing they all seem to have in common is suffering. Each one wanted to tell me of the hardships and injustices endured, either personally or historically. Each had a tale of woe to tell. No one seems to recall ever having committed injustice, but all remember having suffered it. And I cannot help but wonder, in a land of so much pain and grief, a land whose peoples pride themselves on "remembering," whether on occasion forgetfulness mightn't be a more needed virtue.

Today in Bethlehem, Benedict XVI urged his Christian hearers to "Be a bridge of dialogue and constructive cooperation in the building of a culture of peace to replace the present stalemate of fear, aggression and frustration." This is what he himself is striving to be -- by his presence, by his words and by his patient resolve to persistently preach the Good News "in season and out of season" (2 Timothy 4:2).

Legionary of Christ Father Thomas D. Williams, an American theologian living in Rome, is providing commentary for CBS News on Benedict XVI's historic visit to the Holy Land. He is offering a chronicle of his trip for ZENIT as well.

Bethlehem and Nazareth

Pope admission to Betlehem (Palestinian Authority)

Wednesday, 13 May 2009