Allow me to warmly welcome His Holiness Pope Francis on his official visit to the Republic of Bulgaria.
Your Holiness, today an open and good-hearted people are meeting you with warm feelings. The people of one of the oldest Christian states, which embraced the faith of Christ 12 centuries ago. A nation having overcome all vicissitudes and trials through their moral and spiritual virtues, the Church and the Cyrillic Alphabet, through Faith and Knowledge.
The motto of your Apostolic journey is " Peace to this our Earth! „ This plea will echo all over the world from the Bulgarian capital, which bears the very name of God's Wisdom. Our dramatic history is full of wars and suffering. That is why we know the price of peace; and we know that peace is lasting only when humanism and tolerance between different confessions, ethnicities and nations triumph, since the Bulgarian society does not tolerate xenophobia and racism. Just a few meters away from here, an Orthodox temple, a mosque, a Catholic church, and a synagogue coexist peacefully.
In your Easter message, you appealed for "Building bridges, not walls". This is the mission of our time. Walls are easy to lift, but bridges are difficult to build. And if the goodwill and mutual respect prevail over the centuries-old relationship between Bulgaria and the Vatican, it is the merit of the “builders of bridges”.
At the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in the 9th century, Pope Adrian II sanctified the Bulgarian writings. St. Constantine Cyril the Philosopher rests in the San Clemente Basilica. These are holy sites for every Bulgarian. For 44 years already the Bishop of Rome has been accepting a Bulgarian delegation on May 24th as a tribute to the Holy Apostles Cyril and Methodius - the co-patrons of Europe and the first teachers of the Slav world. The Bulgarian alphabet is incorporated in the foundations of European and world civilization; it is the pillar of our identity.
Deep in our generic memory, the reminiscences of King Kaloyan's unification with the Roman Church, the battle of Varna in 1444, the advocacy of the Roman Curia for the Bulgarians after the brutal suppression of the April uprising in 1876, the medical assistance in the Russo-Turkish Liberation War are preserved. Bright is the memory of the time when Angelo Roncalli - Pope John XXIII, called by some "The Bulgarian Pope", spent a decade as an Apostolic Visitator and Delegate in Sofia.
Today, when hatred and xenophobia are coming back to Europe, we remember the great mission of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius - to defend the right of every people to glorify God in their own language. The deep meaning of their lesson is that linguistic and cultural differences do not prevent nations from living in peace and confessing common values.
Your Holiness, your visit to the Republic of Bulgaria is one of the most significant events in the new history of our relations. Because we share common concerns and apprehensions - the care of protecting peace and the worries about the fate of millions of human beings, who have been let down, doomed to persecution, poverty, slavery, segregation, and terror.
The sincerity and the emotional intensity in our relationship make me confident that our common concern is the foundation on which humane thinking people can together achieve their common, noble aspirations for the wellbeing of everybody. Your visit is a testimony of your love for the Bulgarian people, and your trust in Bulgaria to build a more peaceful, fairer and a more human world.
Welcome to Bulgaria, Your Holiness.