Archbishop Gonzalo de Villa y Vásquez, SJ, also called for prayers for peace. The prelate subsequently discussed the violence in the Central American nation in an interview with Vatican News.

Auxiliary Bishop Tomás González made his remarks in an interview with Vatican News following the January 23 audience.

Bishop González also said that synodal meetings in Puerto Rico’s dioceses have “blessed us enormously as we live this process as children of God, all the baptized, faithful and pastors together.”

The Grand Duke subsequently met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations. According to a Vatican statement, the parties discussed “social cohesion, the education of young people, and the safeguarding of the dignity of life and of the human person,” as well as international affairs.

The Western European nation of 690,000 (map) is 72% Christian (70% Catholic) and 4% Muslim.

The conference was organized by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice (CAPP) Foundation, named after Pope St. John Paul II’s 1991 social encyclical.

No continent can “live in peace and thrive without commonly held truths that inform its norms and values,” the papal message stated.

Catholic social teaching “has much to offer as it goes beyond borders and provides a platform for collective interests and way of living, thus making peaceful coexistence possible,” the message added.

The Church in Algeria has 8,740 Catholics, or 0.2% of the total Algerian population of 45,398,000, according to statistics in the new (2025) edition of the Annuario Pontificio [Pontifical Yearbook], published by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Remarkably, one diocese reported no baptisms in 2024, and another reported only one.

On Sunday, January 25—the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time—the Church commemorates the 7th Sunday of the Word of God. Pope Francis instituted the commemoration with his 2019 apostolic letter Aperuit illis; it was first celebrated in 2020.