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| Pope Francis |
Pope Francis begins a trip to Bulgaria and North Macedonia on Sunday, where he will need to be cautious due to delicate relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church. In both of these Balkan countries, the Catholics are a small minority.
Bulgaria, a population of 7.1 million, has only 58,000 Catholics. While North Macedonia, with a population of 2 million, has only 15,000 Catholics, less than the population of a Roman parish.One of the goals of the three-day trip is to improve relations with Orthodox churches as part of Vatican efforts for a future union of the two branches of Christianity, the East and the West, which were divided in 1054.
The Orthodox Church considers the Church of North Macedonia in a schism condition, since proclaimed its autocephaly by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Perhaps, in order to not upset the other Orthodox Churches, the Pope will not meet separately with Stefan, the primate of the North Macedonian Orthodox Church.
While this will be the second visit of a pope to Bulgaria since Pope John Paul visited this state in 2012, in northern Macedonia this will be the first historic visit, which takes place only three months after the change of the name of this country from Macedonia to North Macedonia.
On Tuesday, the Pope will be in Skopje, where an Albanian family born in 1910 the Mother Teresa (Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu). She was sanctified by Pope Francis in 2016. The pope will visit her memorial and meet with the poor who are helped by the nun order of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.