Ceremony is first step to sainthood
ADVERTISEMENTSeven monks and twelve clergymen who were killed during the Algerian civil war have been beatified at a ceremony in the coastal city of Oran.
Present at the mass was Brother Jean Pierre Schumacher - who was at the monastery from which the seven trappist monks were abducted and later beheaded.
"We won't forget the many Algerians who gave their lives as well for peace to show that they don't agree with violence,” he said. “They are real martyrs.”
"For us they're martyrs,” said a retired muslim teacher. “They're like other martyrs, there are 250,000 Algerians who died, the only difference is religious, some are Muslim, and they are Christian, but it's exactly the same."
Beatification in the Catholic church is a first step to sainthood.