President Rumen Radev and the Bulgarian delegation will be received in an audience by His Holiness Pope Francis, BTA reported.
The head of state is on a two-day visit to the Vatican and Italy, which began yesterday. The President leads the Bulgarian delegation, which is traditionally received at an audience by the head of the Roman Catholic Church on the occasion of the Day of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, of the Bulgarian alphabet, education and culture, and of Slavic literature – May 24.
A meeting of the Bulgarian President with the State Secretary of the Vatican Cardinal Pietro Parolin is also planned in the Vatican.
Later in the basilica of “San Clemente”, where the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius served for the first time in the Slavic language, the head of state will attend the Divine Liturgy celebrated at the central altar of the basilica by His Eminence the Western- and Central European Metropolitan Anthony. The President will also visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Pope Adrian II blessed the Bulgarian alphabet in the 9th century.
Within the framework of the visit, the president is expected to pay his respects in front of the monuments of Ivan Vazov and Captain Petko Voivoda in Rome. The Bulgarian delegation for the visit to Rome and the Vatican includes representatives of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, of the Catholic religion in Bulgaria, representatives of state institutions and public figures. The head of state will be accompanied by his wife Desislava Radeva.
Yesterday, Rumen Radev participated in the opening of an office in Rome of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO), where he was welcomed by the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella. The opening of the office was also attended by the President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. Freedom, democracy and human rights are the highest achievements of our civilization, for which generations have made efforts and sacrifices, the Bulgarian president said in his speech.
On the first day of the visit, the exhibition "Athens in drawings and photographs" was opened. at the Pontifical Lateran University. In the words of the head of state, the exhibition is proof that "relations between Christians are based on mutual respect, cooperation, the common mission to build a world filled with faith, hope and common works for peace, spiritual elevation and prosperity.
Bulgaria's great contribution to European civilization is precisely that our country created and spread to all other Slavic peoples a new literature and culture, the president said at a reception at the Bulgarian embassy in Rome on the occasion of May 24. Within the framework of the event, the head of state awarded the order “St. St. Cyril and Methodius“ first degree for their great merits in the field of culture and education the honorary consuls of the Republic of Bulgaria for the regions of Emilia-Romagna, Puglia and Liguria – Franco Castellini, Anna Maria Patricia Gadaleta and Michele Scandroglio.
Every year, an official Bulgarian delegation visits Italy and the Vatican for the traditional celebrations on the occasion of May 24, according to information from the "Reference" department. of BTA. At the traditional audience at the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Bulgaria's role in preserving and developing the work of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, announced on December 31, 1980 by the Holy See as co-patrons of Europe together with St. Benedict of Nursia, was noted.
Since 2003, representatives of Bulgarian institutions have been visiting Rome on a rotational basis. The Bulgarian delegations for May 24 are led once by the President, once by the Prime Minister, once by the Speaker of the National Assembly. The year in which a Bulgarian delegation does not visit Rome and the Vatican is 2020. The visit of President Rumen Radev has been postponed due to the situation in Italy caused by COVID-19, according to a report from the "Reference" department. of BTA.