New church in Azerbaijan funded in part by Pope John Paul II

Published: 2005-09-13

BAKU, Azerbaijan (CNS) -- A new church being built in the predominantly Muslim nation of Azerbaijan is funded in part by the late Pope John Paul II. After Pope John Paul visited this former Soviet republic in May 2002, the Azerbaijani government donated some land in the capital, Baku, to the Catholic Church. Proceeds from the late pope's books and an annual end-of-the-year Vatican auction in 2004 were earmarked for the construction of a church and for funding church-run social programs in Azerbaijan. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and various governmental and religious representatives attended a special ceremony Sept. 10 in Baku to lay the first cornerstone of the new church. Dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, the new church will hold up to 200 parishioners. There are about 150 Azerbaijani Catholics and another 120 foreign Catholics residing in Azerbaijan, according to Fides, the Vatican's missionary news agency.

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