Cardinal Parolin says Albania models 'a culture of encounter'
(Vatican Radio) Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, says one of the Pope’s main reasons for visiting Albania on Sunday is to highlight how the former Communist country has chosen “a culture of encounter”, rather than using religion to fan the flames of conflict.
In an interview with Vatican television, (CTV) the cardinal says the Holy See offers its support and encouragement to the people of Albania as they continue to emerge from “a long winter of isolation” and seek integration into the European Union.
Noting the difficulties that people faced under the decades of dictatorship, Cardinal Parolin says Albanians can offer the rest of Europe the example of a spiritual patrimony that survived despite the persecution, as well as a strong sense of the family.
In Albania today, the Secretary of State says, religious freedom is respected and the Church is engaged in the reconstruction process of both rebuilding churches and helping people to rebuild a sense of faith in the future. This young Church, he says, is marked by the martyrdom of so many under the atheist regime, but also by a spirit of forgiveness and the generosity of so many people who have supported the reconstruction process over the past two decades.
