Pope Francis pleased with trip to Azerbaijan

Baku. 3 October. REPORT.AZ/ Pope Francis pleased with the trip to the Transcaucasian republics: On September 30 to October 1 the pontiff has visited Georgia, on October 2 he paid a visit to Azerbaijan, Report informs referring to the Russian TASS.

"The trip was intense and interesting", Pope Francis told reporters on the way from Baku to Rome.

The trip was the 16th in a travel list of the Latin American pontiff and the second to the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus: in June he has visited Armenia.

Pope Francis stayed only one day in the Azerbaijani capital, in Baku he has celebrated Mass in the local Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the format "tete-a-tete", delivered a specch at the Heydar Aliyev Center and talked with the Chairman of Caucasian Muslims Office, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, and the heads of religious communities in Azerbaijan. At the end of the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church has visited the largest mosque of the Caucasus - Heydar mosque, where he met with the heads of all confessions operating in the republic's religious faiths. Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the visit of the Pope, especially considering that 2016 was declared in the country with a predominantly Muslim population, the Year of multiculturalism.