Vatican envoy marks 50 years of diplomatic relations with Algeria

The Martyrs’ Monument in Algiers that archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations, visited as he began his trip to Algeria. (Shutterstock)

• Gallagher began his trip to Algeria with a visit to the Martyrs’ Monument in Algiers

LONDON: A Vatican envoy has visited Algeria to mark half a century of diplomatic relations.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations, arrived on Tuesday, according to the Vatican News website.
Gallagher began his trip to Algeria with a visit to the Martyrs’ Monument in Algiers, which commemorates victims of the country’s war of liberation.
He held meetings with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Interior Minister Brahim Merad, and Religious Affairs Minister Youcef Belmehdi, along with the Rector of the Great Mosque of Algiers Mohamed Mamoune El-Kacimi El-Hassani.
On Wednesday he visited Tibhirine Monastery, the home of a group of Trappist monks who were killed in 1996. The monks were beatified in 2018, along with 12 other people killed in the country between 1994 and 1996.
The archbishop then met members of the diplomatic corps and civil authorities as well as members of a local church before returning to Rome.