Head of Roman Catholic Church Expected on First Bulgarian Visit

Nadezhda Vankova of BTA
Sofia, May 21


Pope John Paul II is expected here May 23 for what will be the first official visit to Bulgaria by a Head of the Roman Catholic Church.

He will be here through May 26, as the visit has been timed to include May 24, the Day of Slav Letters and Bulgarian Culture.

In a certain sense, the Holy Father is returning the visits that official Bulgarian delegations have traditionally been making to the Vatican for May 24, according to the Apostolic Nuncio in Sofia Antonio Mennini. This journey shows his respect for Slav culture at large and for Bulgarian culture in particular, he added.

According to Mgr. Mennini, during his visit the Pope will encourage the Bulgarian people to cherish their cultural, moral and spiritual roots, to be proud of their identity, not to give up the mission of serving as a bridge between Eastern and Western Europe, and to make their contribution to fulfill the dream for a common European home.

The visit is drawing huge international interest. Over 800 journalists have been accredited to cover the event, including crews of CNN, NBC, RAI Uno and RAI Due, The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the wire services.

This interest is partly due to the much publicized allegations of Bulgarian involvement in the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II. The Vatican has never levelled any explicit or implicit accusations against Bulgaria, and yet the visit is largely seen as a gesture that will clear Bulgaria of the stigma, as Foreign Minister Solomon Passy said.

Passy himself was on a committee that invited the Pope and made the visit possible. In early 2001 the committee launched a campaign encouraging individuals to write personal invitations to the Pope. The committee then selected 22,222 of the invitations it received and forwarded them to the Vatican.

Pope John Paul II is also responding to the invitation of the Catholic community in Bulgaria and former president Peter Stoyanov.

He has previously been invited by three other heads of state, starting from communist leader Todor Zhivkov and including also Peter Mladenov and Zhelyu Zhelev.

The Pope first spoke of a possible visit to Bulgaria in 1994, when he said, "I prey that one day I could visit your beautiful country called 'the garden of Eastern Europe'."

John Paul II is visiting all countries, big and small, which have Catholic communities. Catholics account for just about 1% of Bulgaria's population, and yet they have been sending invitations to the Pope to visit for years.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church leadership would not join the invitation for what it called "canonical and practical considerations." Patriarch Maksim announced this in May 2000 after meeting with Edward Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Despite some metropolitans' threats to hold protests during the visit, the Holy Synod finally said that if the Pope comes to Bulgaria and requests a meeting, he will be accorded "the traditional Bulgarian hospitality."

In August 2001 Foreign Minister Passy conferred with the Apostolic Nuncio in Sofia and, emerging from the meeting, said that Pope John Paul II's visit will probably take place in May 2002. This was confirmed by Mgr. Mennini last November, and a series of visits by papal envoys followed.

During one such visit, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, Substitute Secretary of State of the Vatican for General Affairs, stressed that Pope John Paul II tries to respect the local canonical church during all his tours. Mgr. Sandri delivered to the Holy Synod and Patriarch Maksim a tentative schedule of the visit and a letter in which the Pope officially informed them of his upcoming visit and expressed a wish to meet with them. This seemed to break the ice, and even though it took the Holy Synod three months to send an answer to the Vatican, in early April it confirmed it would receive the Pope. The meeting, which is in the focus of public interest, is scheduled for May 24.

A national representative poll conducted by MBMD agency showed that over 3 million Bulgarians are ready to go out in the streets and welcome the Pope. Half of the respondents believe that the visit will promote Bulgaria's image before the rest of the world.

Over 20,000 police officers will provide security during the visit. Downtown Sofia will be sealed to traffic, public transport will be rerouted, and parking in the central sections will be banned between May 21 and 29. During the Mass which the Pope will celebrate in Plovdiv, GSM transmission in Plovdiv's Central Square will be jammed.