Pope for Top Channel: Albanians, a young and beautiful people

The Holy Father’s surprise was that he accepted to speak only for the Albanian journalists, including Top Channel’s Sokol Balla, who asked why he chose Albania as the first European country to visit in his tour.

Sokol Balla: Your Holiness, you visited Albania, a country of Muslim majority, in a critical situation for the world, because you said that the Third World War is already undergoing. Your message in Tirana was directed only to the Albanians, or to everyone?

Pope Francis: It was for everyone. It was a message of peace, fraternity and co-existence even for other countries that share these similarities with different ethnic roots. You said that Albania has a Muslim majority, but it is a European country, not a Muslim country. This was the surprise for me. Albania is a European country for its culture, and for the co-existence culture that it has inherited.

Sokol Balla: The main boulevard of Tirana had photos of the clergymen who were martyrized during the communist period in a country that until 25 years ago was declared atheist. What was your feeling about this?

Pope Francis: I studied for two months the difficult period of Albania, to understand it better. I studied the period even before that. You have beautiful and strong cultural roots, since the beginning of history. I studied the continuity and noticed that this was a cruel period of time, and the level of cruelty was horrible. When I saw their portraits, I was told that they were not only Catholic. Some of them were Orthodox and Muslim. “You should not believe in God”. “I believe in God, period”. That’s why they were killed. The three religions in Albania have proven that they believe in God, and they have proven now that there is fraternity.

Sokol Balla: Your Holiness, you started your visit with an idea for the Albanians and Albania. You learned how Albanians have suffered, but also that they are tolerant. Did you find other qualities among Albanians? Are these qualities enough to return the eagle at her nest?

Pope Francis: I saw the sufferings that you have passed, and I want to correct what you said: an Albanian is has not tolerance, but fraternity. An Albanian is a man who has the ability to be fraternal and this can be seen in the co-existence between the three religions. They cooperate as brothers. What attracted my attention was the young age of the population. They said it was the country with the youngest population in Europe. There is a superios development in the culture and governing towards this fraternity in Albania.

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