February 2026
The exhibition Twice Called. The Martyrs of Algeria is receiving strong international attention across several countries. The project was created by Oasis, an international foundation established in 2004 at the initiative of Cardinal Angelo Scola with the aim of fostering mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims and creating spaces for dialogue, and by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the official publishing house of the Holy See.
Twice Called: the story of the martyrs of Algeria between faith, dialogue and witness
The exhibition tells the story of nineteen religious men and women killed in Algeria 30 years ago, victims of the war between Algerian armed forces and Islamist armed groups. The kidnapping and murder of the monks of Tibhirine gained worldwide attention through the film Of Gods and Men (2010) by Xavier Beauvois. Algeria’s “black decade” from 1992 to 2002 claimed around 150,000 victims. The nineteen Christian martyrs were beatified in 2018 by decision of Pope Francis.
Already visited by 15,000 people at the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in the summer of 2025, the exhibition is now enjoying significant national and international resonance on the thirtieth anniversary of the death of the Tibhirine monks and of the French Dominican Bishop of Oran, Pierre Claverie, who was killed together with his Muslim friend Mohamed Bouchiki. These days the exhibition is entering a new phase of life, preparing to be presented on an international scale. The title (Twice Called) refers to the fact that the nineteen were faithful twice over: to their religious vocation and to the Algerian people among whom they lived.
New York, Paris, Rome, Milan and Oxford: the global journey of the exhibition “Twice Called”
The exhibition itinerary includes video interviews and testimonies collected in Rome, Paris, Normandy, Lyon, Tunis and Algeria.
On 13 February, Twice Called will arrive in the United States, where it will be shown at New York Encounter, at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan. The event will include a roundtable discussion featuring Father Thomas Georgeon, postulator of the beatification cause; Anne-Marie Gustavson, sister of Bishop Pierre Claverie of Oran; and Paul Heck, Professor of Theology and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. The discussion will be moderated by Monsignor Stephen Raica, Bishop of Birmingham, Alabama.
On 10 March, the exhibition will open in Paris at the prestigious Collège des Bernardins. The French edition is organized with the involvement of the French Bishops’ Conference and the Bayard publishing group, which also publishes the Catholic daily La Croix. La Croix was the first to publish, on 29 May 1996, the Spiritual Testament of Christian de Chergé, a key document for understanding the tragic events of Tibhirine. Bayard and Salvator will publish the French edition of the catalogue of Twice Called, originally published in Italy by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Italian events will also take place. On the same day, 10 March, Twice Called will open in Rome at the Church of Saints Vincent and Anastasius, near the Trevi Fountain. On 12 March, simultaneously, the exhibition will be presented in Milan at the Basilica of Santa Maria della Passione, thanks to the collaboration between the Archdiocese of Milan, PIME, the Centro Culturale di Milano and the Charles Péguy Association.
On 12 March in Milan, the story of the nineteen martyrs will be presented in a panel discussion featuring the current Bishop of Oran, Monsignor Davide Carraro; Monsignor Luca Bressan, Episcopal Vicar for Culture, Charity, Mission and Social Action of the Diocese of Milan; and Sister Franca Littarru of the Little Sisters of Jesus. On 20 March, the Lenten meeting will take place in Milan Cathedral with Archbishop Mario Delpini and Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers.
The following day, 21 March, the exhibition will be presented in Rome by Cardinal Vesco himself together with Father Giulio Albanese, Director of the Office for Social Communications and the Office for Missionary Cooperation of the Vicariate of Rome.
Finally, on 28 March, Twice Called will arrive in Oxford, where it will be on display until 29 March as part of Oxford Convergence.
Curators of the exhibition “Twice Called”
The exhibition was curated by Alessandro Banfi, Michele Brignone, Martino Diez, Claudio Fontana and Chiara Pellegrino of the Oasis Foundation, and by Lorenzo Fazzini of Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The exhibition and its national and international outreach activities are made possible thanks to the support of Fondazione Cariplo.
