The Holy Father was addressing the ITALIAN Eucharistic Congress. The theme of the Congress was taken specifically from a quote from the Italian martyrs. They were martyred for their insistence on celebrating the Eucharist in ITALY. If the Congress had been in England or some other country, or had been an International Congress, I would have assumed the Holy Father would have used an example appropriate to those audiences.
There must be something that I missed. This is from the first para of the article. North Africa is not in Italy.
In an age of widespread religious indifference, Benedict XVI offers as models the martyrs of North Africa who gave their lives for celebrating Mass on a Sunday.
I'm not taking away from the extreme importance of those martyrs. The ones who were actually martyrs should never be forgotten. Maybe they were all Romans.
But maybe what wasn't said by Pope Benedict is even more important in today's world. What he didn't say was that there were many Bishops who weren't martyred, because they gave it all up to the persecutors. Those Bishops were ejected from the Church. Maybe that was the real message.