Thus, the repatriated "Pieds-Noirs" frequently felt "disaffected" from French society. They also suffered from a sense of alienation stemming from the French government's changed position towards Algeria. Until independence, Algeria was legally a part of France; after independence many felt that they had been betrayed and were now portrayed as an "embarrassment" to their country or to blame for the war. Most "Pied-Noirs" felt a powerful sense of loss and a longing for their lost homeland in Algeria. The American author Claire Messud remembered seeing her "pied-noir" father, a lapsed Catholic crying while watching Pope John Paul II deliver a Mass on his TV. When asked why, Messud "père" replied: “Because when I last heard the mass in Latin, I thought I had a religion, and I thought I had a country.” Messud noted that the novelist Albert Camus, himself a "pied-noir", had often written of his love for the sea-shores and mountains of Algeria, declaring Algeria was a place that was a part of his soul, feelings that she noted that mirrored those of other "pied-noirs" for whom Algeria was the only home they had ever known.