The spiritual awakening of the Albanian martyrs

Monsignor, you have been carrying out your mission here in Shkoder since 1998, but you arrived in Albania in 1993 and since then, you have been close to the Albanian people. How do you live out your ministry in this nation that has suffered so much? The month of August marked 30 years of my stable presence in Albania. My first missionary trip as a Franciscan of the Monastic Province of Lecce was on 1 December 1991 and it was a very beautiful and very exciting experience, but also very sad. It was exciting because the people who had found freedom again were very joyful and happy. They were hopeful of a new world in a post-communist Albania. Sad, because I saw a poor country without street signs, economically destroyed. During his Apostolic Journey to Albania in 1993, John Paul ii consecrated the first four bishops following the ...