“We believe that any interreligious dialogue and any fight against extremism can succeed only on the basis of a total frankness on the issue of religious freedom for Moroccan citizens, including Christian Moroccans,” said a statement by the Coordination of Moroccan Christians, a local advocacy group. “We hope that the visit of the Holy Father will be a historic opportunity to move our country forward in this direction.”

The group that meets behind curtains in Meknes wants not only to worship in broad daylight, but to do so in the places of their choosing.

“I want to name my daughter Easter and my son Joshua,” said Zouhair H., 37, a Casablanca resident and the son of an imam who stole his older brother’s Bible when he was a teenager and eventually converted. “We have our own Moroccan rites. I have no interest in praying in another language or other programs. In my own country, I don’t want to be a guest in a church” run by foreigners.

Zouhair, who has no children yet, would give only his first name for fear of harassment.

Aomar Boum, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said there were virtually no Moroccan Christians until a century ago — around 100 in 1933, among 106,000 or so European Catholic settlers.

Churches built all over the country during the French Protectorate, from 1912 to 1956, fell into disuse after Morocco’s independence. In recent years, these houses of worship have been revived by Christian immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, with Moroccan converts still confined to their homes.