Paul KeenanTirana to welcome Pope September 21
The Pope has announced plans to undertake an official visit to Albania. Describing his planned trip as a “brief visit”, the Pontiff stated that he will travel to the Albanian capital Tirana this September 21.
“I want to confirm the Church of Albania in the Faith, and bear witness to my encouragement and love for a country that has suffered for so long in consequence of the ideologies of the past,” the Pontiff said.
Albania suffered a communist takeover at the end of World War II, with severe repression meted out to clerics of religious traditions. The country was declared an ‘atheist nation’ in 1967. The collapse of Soviet communism led to Albania regaining its independence in 1991.