Pope Francis met the president of Slovakia, Zuzana \u010caputov\u00e1 for his official welcome ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava. <\/p>\n
Just as the wind picked up, children dressed in traditional outfits offered bread and salt to the Pope, a customary Slavic gift to visitors. <\/p>\n
The two then proceeded to greet members of each other's staff before meeting privately in the Palace's Golden Hall. <\/p>\n
Shortly afterwards, President \u010caputov\u00e1 officially welcomed Pope Francis before members of the Slovak government, the diplomatic corps, and the country's civil and religious leaders. <\/p>\n
ZUZANA \u010cAPUTOV\u00c1<\/strong> He drew upon the example of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who brought Christianity to the Slavs, as an example of fostering unity in Slovakia and beyond. <\/p>\n POPE FRANCIS The Pope also reflected on the spiritual significance behind the Slavic custom of offering bread and salt to visitors which he received earlier that morning .<\/p>\n POPE FRANCIS Before leaving Slovakia's Presidential Palace, Pope Francis signed a note in the visitor's log, assuring his prayers for the \u201cyoung country with ancient roots.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pope also gave the president a cast of the pontifical medal for his apostolic journey in Slovakia depicting Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, the Patroness of Slovakia. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n JM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September 13, 2021. The Pope was introduced by the President of Slovakia before the country's leaders at an official welcome ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ysqXvCPcbbU","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/b06benvenutoeincontroeng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/b06benvenutoeincontroint.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPresident of Slovakia
\n\u201cGenerations of parents and grandparents have an inscription in their homes: Guest in the house, God in the house. Your Holiness Pope Francis, welcome to Slovakia.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>'Cyril and Methodius identified with all, and sought communion with all: Slavs, Greeks and Latins alike. Their firm faith found expression in a spontaneous openness to others. This is the legacy that you are called to preserve, so that in our time too, you can be a sign of unity.'<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>\u201cThe bread spoken of in the Gospel is always broken. This sends a powerful message for our life as a community: it reminds us that true wealth does not consist simply in multiplying the things we have, but in sharing them fairly with those around us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n