Interior of the Church of Jesus and Mary in Rome, Italy / Credit: Mentnafunangann / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Rome, Italy, Nov 26, 2025 / 10:15 am (CNA).

Catholics in Central Europe — especially in Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, and Hungary — play a vital role in fostering reconciliation and peace on the continent, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See told CNA following a special Mass celebrated in Rome on Monday.

The Mass on Nov. 25, presided over by Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, marked the 25th anniversary of the Basic Agreement between the Holy See and Slovakia, which was signed on Nov. 24, 2000. The accord governs various aspects of the Catholic Church’s life and legal status in the Slovak Republic.

Faithful voices in a wounded region

“The region of Central Europe and Slovakia is of critical importance to the entire continent,” Ambassador Brian Burch told CNA after the liturgy. “In particular, the Catholic peoples in those lands have a rich history that plays a vital role in the reconciliation that is necessary to bring about peace.”

The ambassador said he joins the people of the region in prayer “that the conflict [in Ukraine, east of Slovakia] may soon end and that the voices of faith and strength will prevail.”

A saintly witness remembered

The Mass was held at the Church of Gesù e Maria (Jesus and Mary) in Rome, which houses the tomb of Alojz Chmeľ, a Slovak Discalced Augustinian declared a Servant of God. Chmeľ died in Rome as a seminarian after battling cancer and was remembered by Gallagher as a young man marked by “patient study, assiduous prayer, and docility of the spirit.”

“A nation’s history,” the archbishop said, “can become an act of faithfulness.”

He emphasized that the communion expressed in the Slovak–Vatican agreement is “not merely a juridical act.” Rather, it is rooted in a centuries-old Christian heritage stretching back to the ninth century, when Sts. Cyril and Methodius brought the Gospel, the liturgy, and a written language to the Slavic peoples of Great Moravia.

Peace through justice and dialogue

“Since then,” Gallagher said, “a spiritual spring has passed through the centuries, as faith and the Gospel establish civilization and dialogue between the Church and the nation.”

Agreements founded on justice, mutual respect, and shared responsibility, he added, are “signs of peace, instruments of dignity, seeds of future good.”

Juraj Priputen, Slovakia’s ambassador to the Holy See, also addressed the significance of the anniversary. “Even if the world around us changes,” he said, “the values we cherish must remain.”