First woman rector of a shrine: Witnessing to the Gospel through listening

At the Rimini Meeting, we spoke with Anna Medeossi, who has been entrusted with the care of Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz in Oran, Algeria, about her story of encounter, faith, and listening.

Anna Medeossi has a lively and determined gaze, gentleness in her voice and gestures, and a wisdom that is both humble and profound.

An architect originally from the Italian city of Gorizia, she might never have imagined what life would call her to do nearly a year ago: become the first woman in the world to serve as rector of a shrine.

That distinction takes on even greater significance because of where the shrine is located: Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz in Oran, Algeria, an overwhelmingly Muslim country.

Images of the shrine she oversees were seen around the world on the occasion of the beatification of the Martyrs of Algeria.

From architecture to caring for the shrine

Her arrival at Santa Cruz—where she now also lives as a consecrated virgin in the Ordo Virginum of the Diocese of Oran—was not as rector, but as an architect.

“I actually came to Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz as an architect,” she explains, “in response to a request from Jean-Paul, the Bishop of Oran, to help with the renovation of the shrine in 2017.”

Bishop Jean-Paul is now Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers. That building project gave rise to a relationship that has now lasted nine years. “I also helped organize the beatification, which coincided with the inauguration of the renovated shrine.”

Her appointment arose from a practical need. Santa Cruz had never previously had a rector, she explains, but there was a growing need for someone to be permanently present and care for the site.

Living together in peace

Santa Cruz has a particular rhythm of life. There is an annual diocesan pilgrimage and, “when all goes well,” one Mass a month. For the rest of the time, it is visited primarily by Muslims.

“It is a shrine for Muslims,” she explains. “They come to visit it in their tens and hundreds during the summer and at weekends. It is therefore important to have someone there to welcome them, help them discover what a church is, show that we are brothers and sisters, and bear witness to the world that it is possible to live together in peace.”

The esplanade in front of the shrine symbolizes this vocation. It has been renamed the Esplanade du vivre ensemble en paix—the “Esplanade of Living Together in Peace”—and was established one year after the United Nations approved the international day dedicated to that theme.

Mary, a path of dialogue

“The shrine was built during the colonial era. It could have remained a ruin from that period, a place associated with a wounded memory. Instead, it is a place greatly loved by the people of Oran. It is a sign of a path that we can travel together towards the future.”

It is a sign of hope.

The connection with Pope Leo’s ecumenical and interreligious prayer meeting at Notre-Dame d’Afrique in Algiers—where an inscription in the apse invites people to pray for their Muslim brothers and sisters—and the memory of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the shrine of Meryem Ana Evi, the “House of Mary,” in Türkiye, where the majority of those who pray are Muslims, raise the question of Mary’s role.

“Mary is certainly a path of dialogue,” Ms. Medeossi observes, “because she is also venerated in the Muslim tradition. In reality, many people who come to Santa Cruz—which does not have the same history as Notre-Dame d’Afrique—come simply as tourists. It is a beautiful place above the city of Oran, with a magnificent view.”

Beauty itself thus becomes an instrument of encounter.

“It is wonderful to see how the beauty of the place—including the inside of the chapel—and that moment of wonder at the beauty of the setting help people enter into dialogue and find peace. From there, we can begin to encounter one another.”

Fraternity in daily life

“I work with Muslims,” the rector continues, “and all the paintings in the shrine, all the scenes from the life of Mary, were painted by Muslim Algerian women artists. My daily work, including all the maintenance, is carried out with local companies. I believe fraternity also begins there. They agree to collaborate and to work in a church. That cannot be taken for granted.”

This welcome brings about a reversal of the usual narrative.

“What often surprises me is their desire to say that, yes, the presence of this church and of Christians in Algeria is a sign for the world”—a sign that Algeria, a Muslim country, is a peaceful people, a people that desires tolerance.

Being willing to listen

For Ms. Medeossi, what matters is bearing concrete witness to the faith.

“For me, we bear witness in exactly the same way as in Europe or anywhere else: by being ourselves and trying to live the Gospel fully with the person before us—not through words, but through actions.”

Living in Algeria, she says, is stimulating because it requires her to listen.

“You must listen to what the other person is telling you and to the image of yourself that the other person reflects back to you. You must know that you are always judged on love. People recognize whether you speak truthfully, whether you are smiling and whether you are understanding.”

It is a journey of shared humanity.

“To bear witness to the faith is to seek to grow together in humanity, with profound respect for our differences. Beautiful friendships arise when people can speak truthfully with one another.”

Mercy as true realism

Reflecting on the message Pope Leo delivered at the Rimini Meeting, in which he contrasted the “false realism” of those who call for rearmament and hostility towards the enemy with the “true realism” of love and mercy, Ms. Medeossi says:

“I also thought of those small, everyday gestures that require a great deal of mercy. Everything begins there. As rector, it begins with welcoming tourists. People often do things that make you want only to rebuke them with a stern look and perhaps become angry.

“But taking the step of mercy and trying to find a different way to say things often opens a path into people’s hearts. A relationship can then arise with someone who otherwise would have left angry. That is how it happens—with a moment of mercy.”

Eugenio Murrali and Andrea Tornielli - Rimini
Source: vaticannews.va/en