Oran, Algeria, Dec 10, 2018 / 15:08 pm
Bishop Pierre Claverie and his 18 companions, who were martyred in Algeria between 1994 and 1996, were beatified Saturday during a Mass in Oran.
AFP reported that some 1,200 people attended the Dec. 8 ceremony at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Cross. Among them were relatives and friends of the beatified. The beatification was celebrated by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Blessed Claverie and his companions were killed during the Algerian Civil War by Islamists.
Archbishop Paul Desfarges of Algiers noted the "thousands of victims of the Algerian civil war," calling them anonymous heroes.