site.btaPope Francis's Apostolic Journey to Bulgaria in May 2019

Pope Francis made an apostolic journey to Bulgaria from May 5 to 7, 2019. 

He arrived in Sofia on May 5 at the invitation of the Bulgarian authorities and the Interritual Bishops' Conference of Bulgaria. The Pope was met with an official ceremony by President Rumen Radev. Later in the day, he visited the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and met with Patriarch Neophyte. 

On May 6, Pope Francis paid a private visit to the Vrazhdebna Refugee Centre in Sofia and blessed the residents. He then proceeded to the south-central town of Rakovski, home to Bulgaria's largest Catholic community, where he celebrated Holy Mass and administered First Communions to 242 children from Catholic parishes countrywide at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in the General Nikolaevo Quarter.

Back in Sofia in the late afternoon, the Pope attended an interreligious prayer meeting for peace in Sofia's Nezavisimost Square, the last event on his Apostolic Journey to Bulgaria. Pope Francis said the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi. In his subsequent address, the Holy Father called on everyone to follow in St Francis' footsteps by becoming a peacemaker. 

"For many centuries, the Bulgarians of Sofia belonging to different cultural and religious groups gathered in this place for meetings and discussions.  May this symbolic place become a witness to peace.  Tonight our voices blend in expressing our ardent desire for peace.  Let there be peace on earth: in our families, in our hearts, and above all in those places where so many voices have been silenced by war, stifled by indifference and ignored due to the powerful complicity of interest groups.  May all work together to make this dream come true: religious, political and cultural leaders.  May each of us, wherever we may be, in all that we do, be able to say: 'Make me an instrument of your peace'," the Pope said. 

"It is a plea that the dream of Pope Saint John XXIII will come true: the dream of an earth where peace is always at home.  Let us share in that aspiration and, by the witness of our lives, let us say: Pacem in terris!  Let there be peace on earth to all those whom the Lord loves," he added.

According to data from the National Statistical Institute’s most recent census in September 2021, there are 38,709 Catholics in Bulgaria. The Catholic population is primarily concentrated in the Plovdiv region, as well as in the towns of Svishtov, Belene, and Pleven. Some 5,000 Catholics reside in Sofia.

Catholicism is the fourth largest religion in Bulgaria, following Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Protestantism.