A British soldier turned priest who risked his life to rebuild the Church’s presence in Algeria following a spate of attacks against Christians has been appointed by Pope Francis as a bishop in the overwhelmingly Muslim country. Fr John MacWilliam, a 68-year-old “White Father” missionary – technically a Missionary of Africa – was on Thursday named the next leader of the diocese of Laghouat-Ghardaïa, a recognition of the courageous peace building work he has carried out in the region. At the height of violence against Christians by armed Islamic groups in the mid-1990s, on 27 December 1994, four of his confreres running the White Father mission in Tizi-Ouzou were assassinated in their own home, …
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