Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIV received the bishops of Puerto Rico and encouraged them to be “bearers of fraternal communion and to strive for peace in all our dioceses,” according to a bishop who was present at the meeting.

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.”

Pope Leo XIV received Grand Duke Guillaume, Luxembourg’s head of state, and his consort, Grand Duchess Stéphanie.

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.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, sent a message in Pope Leo’s name to participants in a conference on Catholic social thought and peacebuilding in Europe.

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.

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Today is the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop and Doctor of the Church. St. Francis' ardent love of God and souls, his great kindliness, rare wisdom and sure teaching made him exceptionally influential in bringing about conversions and in guiding souls in the spiritual life. He won back to the faith more than 70,000 heretics, thus restoring to the Church a great part of the Chablais, which had been ravaged by Protestantism. He was St. Jane de Chantal's spiritual director, and with her founded the Order of the Visitation. He is the author of Treatise on the Love of God and Introduction to the Devout Life. St. Francis died at Lyons in 1622.

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