• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home World

Pope on sensitive trip to Orthodox Bulgaria and North Macedonia

3 May 2019, 2:23 PM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
Pope Francis

Bulgarian Orthodox leaders have ordered clergy not to take part in prayers or services with the pope, saying its laws do not permit it, but the pope will meet Orthodox Patriarch Neophyte and visit an Orthodox cathedral in Sofia.

Pope Francis

Image: Reuters

Bulgarian Orthodox leaders have ordered clergy not to take part in prayers or services with the pope, saying its laws do not permit it, but the pope will meet Orthodox Patriarch Neophyte and visit an Orthodox cathedral in Sofia.

Pope Francis starts a trip on Sunday to Bulgaria and North Macedonia where he will have to tread carefully because of sensitive relations with the dominant Eastern Orthodox Church in the two Balkan countries where Catholics are a tiny minority. Bulgaria, a country of 7.1 million people, is home to just 58 000 Catholics, while North Macedonia, with a population of 2 million, has just 15 000 Catholics, less than some single neighbourhood parishes in Rome.

One purpose of the three-day trip is to improve relations with the Orthodox churches as part of the Vatican’s push for eventual unity between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity that split in 1054. However, that task is delicate because Orthodox churches in both countries are caught up in their own internal conflicts, which have spilled over into official relations with Catholics.

Bulgarian Orthodox leaders have ordered clergy not to take part in prayers or services with the pope, saying its laws do not permit it, but the pope will meet Orthodox Patriarch Neophyte and visit an Orthodox cathedral in Sofia.

“Receiving the pope, but not praying with him is a contradiction in terms,” said Tamara Grdzelidze, professor of Ecumenical Theology and visiting fellow at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. She suggested that the choice was due to internal disputes among Bulgarians.

A statement from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in April explaining its position, emphasised that the invitation for the pope’s visit was made by state authorities; suggesting it had been given only a secondary role in the planning.

DIFFICULT DIALOGUE
Bulgaria’s Orthodox community is one of the most hard-line in relations with the Catholic Church. It is the only Orthodox community that has boycotted the most recent meetings of the official Orthodox-Catholic dialogue and also boycotted the 2016 Pan-Orthodox Council, citing differences on preparatory texts. The Orthodox world considers North Macedonia’s Church to be in a state of schism since it declared itself autocephalous, or independent, from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Apparently in an effort not to upset other Orthodox Churches, the pope will not be meeting privately with North Macedonian Orthodox Primate Stephen. It will be only the second visit by a pope to Bulgaria -Pope John Paul visited in 2002.

It is the first by a pope to North Macedonia and comes just three months after its name was changed from Macedonia, ending a decade-old dispute with Greece and opening the way for the ex-Yugoslav republic to join the European Union and NATO.

“It’s a big political gesture on the part of the pope towards countries that have struggled to open themselves up both religiously and politically after the fall of communism and the Socialist bloc,” Grdzelidze told Reuters. “It could also be an encouragement for the local Catholic churches, despite their size, to be more active in contributing to public life and introducing Western values while not being in contrast to the Orthodox,” said Grdzelidze, a former Georgian ambassador to the Vatican.
Francis is most eagerly awaited in Rakovski, Bulgaria’s largest predominantly Roman Catholic town.

“It is a great joy, a great spiritual experience, a feast of faith for the whole community here in Rakovski as well as for the whole country,” said Sister Elka Staneva, a nun who has been preparing local children to receive their first communion from the pope.

He will spend Tuesday in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje, where the late Mother Teresa was born Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in 1910 when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Known as the “saint of the gutters” for her work among the poor in India, she died in 1997 and was officially made a saint by Pope Francis in 2016. He is due to visit her memorial and meet poor people helped by the order of nuns founded by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Share article
Tags: Pope FrancisMacedoniaBulgariaOrthodox Church
Previous Post

How tech reduced the length of voting queues?

Next Post

Baxter tips Sundowns to advance to CAF final

Related Posts

Javeline anti-tank missiles are displayed on the assembly line as U.S. President Joe Biden tours a Lockheed Martin weapons factory in Troy, Alabama, US May 3, 2022.

US readies $2 billion-plus Ukraine aid package

1 February 2023, 10:42 AM

Calls for police reform ring out across United States in aftermath of Tyre Nichols’ death

31 January 2023, 10:08 PM
People and rescue workers gather amid the damages, after a suicide blast in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan January 30, 2023.

Families search for loved ones after Pakistan mosque blast kills 100

31 January 2023, 3:40 PM
People and rescue workers gather amid the damages, after a suicide blast in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan January 30, 2023.

Pakistan mosque bombing death toll rises to 87

31 January 2023, 9:46 AM
US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 140th Wing of the Colorado Air National Guard during NATO exercise Saber Strike flies over Amari military air base, Estonia June 12, 2018.

Western allies differ over jets for Ukraine as Russia claims gains

31 January 2023, 6:59 AM
A member of the bomb disposal unit surveys the site after a motorcycle bomb blast near a police station in Quetta, Pakistan July 30, 2019.

Suicide bombing at mosque in Pakistan kills 32, targeted police

30 January 2023, 3:16 PM
Next Post
Mamelodi Sundowns players

Baxter tips Sundowns to advance to CAF final

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Registration at Unisa closes on Friday, but management says no need to panic
  • Gas leak shut, isolated in Pretoria North
  • King of Bacardi music ‘Vusi Ma R5’ killed in Soshanguve
  • Committee wants to halt planned demolition of North West hospital
  • Bapedi kingdom commemorates Kgosi Mampuru II, still hoping to find his remains
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • VIDEO | St Benedict College’s Matric learner gets 11 distinctions
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Female circumcision practice thriving in Eastern Cape
  • Premier denies claims that KZN government spent millions on Mampintsha’s funeral
  • At least 10 people killed in Bhityi area, Eastern Cape
  • UPDATE: Four dead in KwaMashu Hostel shooting
  • Manhunt for 20 suspects in KwaMashu shooting
  • LIVE: EFF leader Julius Malema and bodyguard back in court
  • VIDEO: Jacob Zuma vs State Advocate Billy Downer, Karen Maughan

LATEST

Electricity pylons  in South Africa.
  • Business

Eskom anticipates lower stages of load shedding by the weekend


File: An overview of the Niger delta where signs of oil spills can be seen in the water in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
  • Africa

Nigerian communities file damages claim against Shell


Crime scene image
  • South Africa

Police investigators still at scene of KwaMashu fatal shooting


Eskom logo against an electric bulb
  • Business

Key priority areas identified to fix energy crisis: Eskom board


ANC Deputy President Paul Mashatile at a party event
  • Politics

Mashatile set to become a MP


  • Business

VIDEO | Eskom board says focusing on seven priority areas


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2023

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous Voters during the 1994 elections. How tech reduced the length of voting queues?
Next Mamelodi Sundowns players Baxter tips Sundowns to advance to CAF final