Leo’s journey to Algeria is a pastoral encounter with its Christian minority and tribute to the legacy of St Augustine. But some warn that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune will try to use this trip to “popewash” a government that stifles political dissent.

At first glance, the symbolism is compelling. On 13 April the Pope who introduced himself to the people of Rome on the evening of his election as “a son of Saint Augustine” is due to land in Algiers for a pastoral visit to the homeland of the extraordinary figure whose voice still resonates across the universal Church after fifteen centuries.

Yet this papal visit exposes a troubling contradiction. Pope Leo is paying tribute to a fourth-century convert of mixed Berber heritage who, if he attempted to convert to Christianity in Algeria today, would be declared a criminal. The official narrative of his visit centres on heritage: on ruins, on basilicas, on the memory of a Christianity safely contained within the past. The planned pilgrimage to Annaba (the Basilica of Saint Augustine in the city) – the ancient city of Hippo – will honour the philosopher and intellectual who shaped Western civilisation: Augustine the monument. But Christianity in Algeria is not only a matter of stones. It is present, lived and even growing. And that’s the problem.

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