Pope Francis: Your land is a bridge between East and West and a meeting-point for numerous cultural currents

Thanking the President and the Prime Minister for the welcome and the gracious invitation to visit North Macedonia, the Pope greeted representatives of religious communities, and especially the country’s Catholic community, saying it’s “an active and integral part of your society, sharing fully in the joys, concerns and daily life of your people.”

The Pope expressed his happiness to be visiting the country on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, which occurred a few years after the country became independent in September 1991.

“Your land, a bridge between East and West and a meeting-point for numerous cultural currents,” Pope Francis said, “embodies many of the distinctive marks of this region.

“With the elegant testimonies of its Byzantine and Ottoman past, its lofty mountain fortresses and the splendid iconostases of its ancient churches, which speak of a Christian presence dating back to apostolic times, North Macedonia reflects all the depth and richness of its millennial culture.

“But allow me to say that these great cultural treasures are themselves only a reflection of your more precious patrimony: the multiethnic and multi-religious countenance of your people, the legacy of a rich and, indeed, complex history of relationships forged over the course of centuries.”

“This crucible of cultures and ethnic and religious identities,” The Pope continued, “has resulted in a peaceful and enduring coexistence in which those individual identities have found expression and developed without rejecting, dominating or discriminating against others.

“They have thus given rise to a fabric of relationships and interactions that can serve as an example and a point of reference for a serene and fraternal communal life marked by diversity and reciprocal respect.”

Diversity and reciprocal respect, the Pope said, were the exact characteristics that were most important for the nation to integrate into Europe.

“It is my hope,” the Pope added, “that this integration will develop in a way that is beneficial for the entire region of the Western Balkans, with unfailing respect for diversity and for fundamental rights.

“Here, in fact, the different religious identities of Orthodox, Catholics, other Christians, Muslims and Jews, and the ethnic differences between Macedonians, Albanians, Serbs, Croats, and persons of other backgrounds, have created a mosaic in which every piece is essential for the uniqueness and beauty of the whole.

“That beauty will become all the more evident to the extent that you succeed in passing it on and planting it in the hearts of the coming generation,” the Pope said.

Once again highlighting the value of finding a “common ground of understanding and respect for the dignity of every human person,” the Pope said this would secure the country’s “future of peace and prosperity.”

The Pope also acknowledged the philanthropic efforts made by authorities, international agencies, and NGOs who helped migrants and refugees coming from different Middle Eastern countries in 2015 and 2016.

“The ready solidarity offered to those in such great need—people who had left behind so many of their dear ones, to say nothing of their homes, their work, and their homeland—does you honor,” Pope Francis said.

“It is my hope that you will cherish the chain of solidarity that emerged from that emergency, and thus support all volunteer efforts to meet the many different forms of hardship and need.”

The Pope also paid homage to Mother Teresa, who devoted her life to serving “the abandoned, the discarded, and the poorest of the poor.”

“Born in 1910 in a suburb of Skopje with the name of Anjezë Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she carried out her apostolate of humble and complete self-giving in India and, through her Sisters, reached out to the most varied geographical and existential peripheries,” the Pope said, urging citizens to follow her example of commitment, dedication, and hope.”

Thanking the President for “the yearly visit made to the Vatican by an official Delegation of yours on the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius,” the Pope encouraged efforts to make the country “a beacon of peace, acceptance and fruitful integration between cultures, religions, and peoples.”

“May God protect and bless North Macedonia, preserve it in concord, and grant it prosperity and joy!”, Pope Francis said in closing.