site.bta Pope Francis Receives President Rosen Plevneliev

Pope Francis Receives President Rosen Plevneliev

Vatican, May 16 (BTA Exclusive by Hristo Petrov) - President Rosen Plevneliev, who is paying an official visit to the Vatican, was received officially at the Cortile di San Damaso inner courtyard of the Vatican Palace on Monday.

Plevneliev is leading the Bulgarian delegation, received by Pope Francis and which will pay homage at what Bulgarians consider holy places in Rome on the occasion of the Day of Bulgarian Letters and Culture.

The audience, at which Plevneliev and the Pope conversed vis-а-vis for 30 minutes, was held in the personal library of the Pontiff. Then the Bulgarian delegation, including MPs, heads of spiritual and cultural institutions, as well as the Bulgarian Ambassador to the Holy See, Kiril Topalov, were shown in.
   
The meeting ended with the traditional exchange of gifts.

Later in the day, after meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Plevneliev laid a wreath at the grave of St. Peter. He also visited the historical locations related to Bulgaria in Rome. He laid flowers at the monuments of Pope John XXIII (who was the nuncio to Bulgaria from 1925 to 1934), as well as of Pope John Paul II and Ivan Vazov, who is known as the Patriarch of Bulgarian Contemporary Literature.