Pope Francis Gives Audience to Bulgarian PM Borissov

Vatican City, May 23 (BTA Exclusive by Hristo Petrov) - Pope
Francis Saturday gave an audience to Bulgarian Prime Minister
Boyko Borissov, who is paying an official visit to Vatican City
and Italy on the occasion of the Day of Bulgarian Education and
Culture and Slav Letters, May 24.
 
Pope Francis and Borissov held a tete-a-tete talk at the
Apostolic Palace for 15 minutes, after which the Bulgarian PM
presented the members of his delegation: Culture Minister Vezhdi
 Rashidov, Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev, and MPs Dimiter
Glavchev, Yavor Haytov, Nayden Zelenogorski, Borislav Borissov,
Polina Karastoyanova, Mariyana Georgieva, and Mariana
Boyadzhieva. Bulgarian Ambassador to the Holy See Kiril Topalov
also attended the meeting.

At the end of the audience, the Bulgarian side presented Pope
Francis with a stone from the tomb of St. John of Rila, and the
Pope presented his guests with a medallion with the image of the
 Angel of Peace. 

After the audience, Borissov visited the Secretariat of State,
where he talked with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin,
 and Rome's Parioli residential area, where he laid a wreath at
the Monument to Ivan Vazov.

On Sunday, the Bulgarian PM will attend a service at the San
Paolo alla Regola Church, used by the Bulgarian Orthodox
community in Rome, and visit the Basilica of St Clement, which
holds the relics of St. Constantine Cyril the Philosopher.