Pope urges Balkans to embrace diversity

Pope Francis urged the Balkans to embrace its patchwork of faiths and ethnicities during a visit to North Macedonia yesterday, where he held an open-air mass in the capital Skopje, the proud birthplace of Mother Teresa.

The pontiff was welcomed with yellow billboards and buses bearing his smiling face after he touched down in the mainly Orthodox Christian country.

Catholics make up a small sliver -- less than one percent -- of the 2.1 million population, which also includes a large Muslim minority that is ethnic Albanian.

In an address before the country’s political leaders, Francis praised the “crucible of cultures and ethnic and religious identities” in “your land, a bridge between East and West”.

North Macedonia’s diversity, which reflects the mix of communities in wider Balkan region, forms a “mosaic in which every piece is essential for the uniqueness and beauty of the whole”, he added.