- Title: ALBANIA-POPE/SECURITY Preparations for Pope Francis' visit underway in Albania
- Date: 20th September 2014
- Summary: TIRANA, ALBANIA ( SEPTEMBER 20, 2014) (REUTERS) POLICE REGULATING TRAFFIC AROUND SQUARE WHERE POPE WILL HOLD MASS STREET WITH COMMUNIST ERA BUILDING, PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET, POSTERS SHOWING CATHOLIC PRIESTS PERSECUTED DURING ENVER HOXHA REIGN POSTERS OF PRIESTS PERSECUTED DURING ENVER HOXHA REIGN VARIOUS OF POLICE ON STREETS / REGULATING TRAFFIC CATHOLIC PRIEST IN CHARGE OF MEDIA ARRANGEMENTS FOR POPE VISIT TO TIRANA, GJERGJ META, TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRIEST IN CHARGE OF MEDIA ARRANGEMENTS FOR POPE VISIT TO TIRANA, GJERGJ META, SAYING: " Everything is going well and we are preparing for tomorrow in all normality. I don't know, I don't have any information about this thing (threats against pope Francis). I think everything is going well. I had some conversations today with security men and everything is going well." PEOPLE IN STREET / MOTHER THERESA SQUARE WHERE POPE WILL HOLD MASS IN BACKGROUND
- Embargoed: 5th October 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Albania
- Country: Albania
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA3LADHHEI6WQIMGFXQ2W93N90K
- Story Text: Organisers said on Sunday (September 20) that preparations for Pope Francis' visit to Tirana were going according to schedule.
No extra security measures could be seen in the Albanian capital despite media reports on tightened security in Vatican after intelligence services intercepted an unspecified threat against the Pope.
"Everything is going well as we are preparing for tomorrow, normality. I don't know, I don't have any information about this thing (threats against pope Francis). I think everything is going well. I had some conversations today with security men and everything is going well", Gjergj Meta, a Catholic priest in charge of media arrangements for the Pope's visit in Tirana.
Pope Francis is due to arrive on a one-day visit to Tirana on Sunday. The visit will be Francis' first trip to a European country since he became pope in March last year.
Pope Francis is expected to celebrate the revival of religion in Albania, banned under a Stalinist regime in power for four decades following World War Two, and the peaceful co-existence of faiths in the predominantly Muslim but largely secular Balkan country.
Large pictures of Albanian Catholic clerics who were executed or died in labour camps under dictator Enver Hoxha have been hung along the main boulevard running from the central Mother Teresa Square.
Albania's progress towards the European mainstream over the past two decades has been rocky, plagued by weak governance and political parties often at each other's throats.
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