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Cardinal Sodano, substituting for Pope, meets Azeri leader

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  • Cardinal Sodano, substituting for Pope, meets Azeri leader

    Catholic World News
    Feb 26 2005

    Cardinal Sodano, substituting for Pope, meets Azeri leader

    Vatican, Feb. 26 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Angelo Sodano (bio - news)
    met with visiting President Ilham Aliev of Azerbaidjan on Saturday,
    substituting for Pope John Paul II (bio - news).

    With Pope John Paul remaining in Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican
    Secretary of State welcomed Aliev to the Vatican. An official Vatican
    announcement after the visit reported that the visiting Azeri leader
    had sent his best wishes to the Pope, and assured him that the people
    of the former Soviet republic were praying for his recovery.

    As Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano ordinarily meets privately
    with visiting government leaders after they have been received by the
    Pope. His discussions with Aliev reportedly centered on questions of
    religious freedom in Azerbaidjan and the border conflict between that
    country and neighboring Armenia over the region of Nagorni-Karabakh.

    Pope John Paul II visited Azerbaidjan in May 2002, as the country
    celebrated the 10th anniversary of its independence. An
    overwhelmingly Muslim country, Azerbaidjan has a tiny Catholic
    community-- composed primarily of people of Polish or Armenian ethnic
    origin-- that survived decades of persecution. The underground
    Catholic community returned to public life in 1997 when the new
    regime recognized freedom of religion.
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