VATICAN SECRETARY OF STATE GOES TO ARMENIA DESPITE UNREST

Catholic News Agency
March 4 2008
CO

Vatican City, Mar 4, 2008 / 10:37 am (CNA).- Despite no sign of
negotiations emerging in the Armenian post-election dispute, Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, left this morning for
the former Soviet country after delaying his departure by two days.

The cardinal’s itinerary will be altered to accommodate his shorter
stay, but everything is on track for his March 6-9 visit to Azerbaijan.

During his stay in the neighboring country, Cardinal Bertone will
meet Sheikh Allashukur Pashazade, head of Muslims in the Caucasus,
and other religious leaders, to tell them of the Catholic Church’s
desire to collaborate in the joint commitment to peace, harmony
between peoples and the good of the human family.

In Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city, "Cardinal Bertone will attend
the inauguration of a new Catholic church built on land donated to
Servant of God John Paul II by President Heydar Aliyev, father of
the current head of State," the Vatican’s press office reports.