Nov 16, 2011 / 01:15 am
After decades of Communist rule in Albania, Pope Benedict XVI’s initiative to dialogue with non-believers drew hundreds of young people for a two-day event in the capital of Tirana.
“There is a great thirst for spirituality in Albania after 47 years of atheist, communist, absolute dictatorship,” Richard Rouse of the Pontifical Council for Culture, which organized the event, told CNA.
“In communist Albania,” Rouse added, religion “was absolutely not allowed. For 47 years they tried to kill God—and failed.”
On Nov. 14 and 15, the Pontifical Council for Culture, along with the local Catholic Church in Albania, organized a series of events that facilitated both dialogue with and discovery of Christianity.