Pope hails 'model of religious harmony'

Pope Francis said Albania was a model of religious harmony during his first visit to the Muslim-majority country yesterday.

The former communist state, which was once declared the first atheist republic, was an example to the world, the pontiff said.

In his first trip to a Muslim-majority country, Pope Francis held up Albania as a model of religious harmony compared to the sectarian savagery sweeping across the Middle East.

Large crowds of Christians and Muslims lined the broad avenues of Tirana, the capital, yesterday as the pope was driven into the centre of the city after a short flight from Rome.

Francis said "authentic religious spirit" was being perverted in many parts of the world and "religious differences distorted and manipulated".

That had led to conflict and violence, said the pope, who recently gave his conditional approval of air strikes against Islamic State extremists persecuting Christians and other minorities in Iraq.

He held up Albania, a country of 3million people in which about 60% of the people are Muslim, 10% Roman Catholic, 6.75% Christian Orthodox, and the rest either being irreligious or belonging to other groups as an exemplar of religious tolerance.

"I am referring to the peaceful coexistence and collaboration that exists among followers of different religions," the pope said during his day-long trip to the Balkan country.

Nobody should "use God as a shield" with which to "justify acts of violence and oppression".

As the pope was driven among the crowds in a white, open-topped car, people cheered and waved Vatican flags.

One man held up a placard that read: "I love the Bible and Koran because I am Albanian."

Albania, which dictator Enver Hoxha declared the world's first atheist state in 1967, has emerged from the dark years of dictatorship and re-embraced religious belief, rebuilding churches and mosques that had been destroyed or converted to other uses by the communist regime.

"Albania shows that peaceful and fruitful co-existence between persons and communities of different religions is possible," the pontiff said.