Bulgaria’s town with the largest Catholic community, Rakovski, is preparing to welcome the Holy Father on its territory on May 6th. More than 50,000 Catholic Christians from across the country are expected to gather at the central square of the small town located just 25 km north of Bulgaria’s European Capital of Culture Plovdiv, all excited to have the chance to pray together with His Holiness Pope Francis and bring home in their hearts the words of encouragement they expect to hear from him to remain faithful to Christ in these days of trials.
Young church priest Ivelin Genov of the Rakovski-based Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the second-biggest Catholic church in the Balkans, says that the eagerly expected Pope's three-day visit to Bulgaria is a good occasion for the clerics to remind people who the head of the Roman Catholic Church really is.
“We take advantage of this event in order to be able to explain to the congregation that for the Catholics he is that Roman bishop who watches over his entrusted people and is the visible symbol of God's presence and love on Earth. But he is also the bearer of a spiritual responsibility to nurture unity and fellowship - not in sameness but in difference.”
Unity and fellowship, including in the divided church of Christ. Several days ago the Pope initiated the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Is the Holy Father expected to bring into this dialogue the representatives of other Christian churches in Bulgaria during his visit herewhich is part of his Balkan trip including also Macedonia?
“The Roman Catholic Church is deeply involved in this ecumenical dialogue because that is the message of our Lord - to be one, and who we are to stray away from this legacy”, the priest responds. "I am not aware if His Holiness would do it through specific words or specific documents, but with his presence in our lives here, albeit for only a couple of days, he will send a message for precisely such a desire - to be all one, as it is said in the Holy Scripture, just as You, Father, You are in Me and I am in You so that they may be in Us."
In his pontificate Pope Francis often goes beyond the theoretical side in order to go closer to the existential peripheries as he calls them and to the needs of the world’s poor and downtrodden.
“He wants to tell us that, unlike our logic, not everything revolves around the economy,"Father Ivelin Genov says.“Yes, we can manage our common home,the Earth, but only if we stick to love - not as a hollow concept but as a concrete action. That is why Pope Franciscalls on us to go out of our lairs of comfort and to get a real-life taste of the miserable lives of some people, experience the reality of every single person.”
And he keeps setting his personal example all the way - we can see him sharing the same table with homeless people, we can hear his calls to be hospitable to the migrants, we can feel his compassion for innocent victims, visiting memorials in different countries. It is no accident that Pope Francishas chosen for the logo of his first visit to Bulgaria the title of one encyclical, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), written by the "Bulgarian" pope John XXIII, urging us to read the signs of time.
“We can still read today many signs that do not allow us to live in love and peace, even in this country,"continues the priest. "And I think the pope's message will touch on these areas - corruption, abortion, courtship of the great powers, arbitrariness in legislation, emigration, various ideologies - all signs that divide our society.”
The pope's visit to Rakovski, the second place he will visit in Bulgaria after the capital Sofia, will bring a lot of joy to 40 children in the town who will receive Christ in their hearts with the help of the Holy Father. “This will be a sublime moment in their lives, for the first communion is the fire that kindles the flame of the divine love inside of them”, said the priest and recalls his meeting with Pope John Paul II in Plovdiv in 2002 as the greatest gift he could receive for his 14th birthday.
“I had the feeling that the pope was looking straight at me several times”, Father Ivelin Genov recalls. "So he had this charisma to penetrate, to touch each one individually - not just as a crowd of gathered laymen. I also remember the words at the end of his message to the young: "Make your contribution to this country so the land of roses could become more and more a land of hospitality and peace." I think Pope Francis will also extend such a message to the young people in Rakovski - to be hospitable, not to shut ourselves but rather to spread the peace we have received from Christ to everyone. And I do not know what a more beautiful wish a pope could offer to the young people whom he calls the "future of the world."
English Rossitsa Petcova
Photos: BGNES and private library
