Pope asks Macedonia to allow religion classes in elementary schools

Published: 2005-05-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI asked the government of Macedonia to keep its promise to allow religion to be taught in public elementary schools. "Knowledge enlightened by faith, far from dividing communities, binds peoples together in the common search for truth, which defines every human as one who lives by belief," the pope said May 19 during a ceremony welcoming Macedonia's new ambassador to the Vatican. Slightly more than 2 million people live in the small Balkan nation; about 70 percent of them are Orthodox and about 29 percent are Muslim. The Vatican estimates there are about 15,000 Catholics in the former Yugoslav republic, which gained independence in 1991. Speaking in English, Pope Benedict told the new ambassador, Bartolomej Kajtazi, that the future stability and social and economic progress of his nation will depend to a large extent on efforts to improve the country's education system.

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