On October 29, 1989, during a visit to Tarente (in the south of Italy, opposite Tirana), John Paul II made a new appeal to the “noble nation” of Albania, which “throughout history has been able to defend its cultural identity and its religious faith”, and to which the Holy Father addresses his blessing. (…)
A harbinger of changes? Between August 14 and August 17, 1989, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, born Gonxha Bojaxhiu, received permission to pray at the graves of her mother Roza and sister Agué. (…)
On November 4, 1990, sixty-three-year-old Father Simon Jubani, released eighteen months earlier from the Albanian gulag (after twenty-two years of detention for “ties to the Vatican”), celebrated Holy Mass at the old cemetery in Shkodra in front of five thousand worshippers. This bold move reinforces his great moral authority: next Sunday there are ten times as many faithful at Mass. Significant detail: Father Jubani, assisted by four other old priests who had come out of the underground, celebrated Mass from memory: he himself did not have a Bible at that time… “Since my release in April 1989, I have secretly baptized ten children a day” – the exceptional priest told AFP. This is just the beginning, every day at 4 p.m. crowds of people are now crowding around the cemetery chapel. (…)
March 31, 1991 – Easter Sunday. In his Urbi et Orbi message in Rome, John Paul II addressed “the dear Albanian community that has remained faithful to the Gospel of Christ”: “Regain courage, direct yourself towards times of abundant harvest”. On the same day – who would have believed it a year ago? – The first free elections of modern Albania were held.
Bernard Lecomte “The Pope Who Overthrew Lenin”; CLD Publishing House, Tours 2007
