“Albania is experiencing this year 2003 as a special year of grace, declared by the Pope an ‘extraordinary jubilee year”, points out Bishop Angelo Massafra of Scutari, president of the Albanian Episcopal Conference. “On Wednesday 15 January the bishops of the whole Albanian-speaking area assembled in Lezhe, in the north of the country – explains the bishop to commemorate the third centenary of the assembly of Arberi, one of the most important events in the history of Albania in recent centuries. During this assembly the Christian community organized itself to curb the growing islamization of the country. It made specific provisions for the defence of the faith which in spite of everything that happened thereafter permitted the country to preserve in some way a Christian presence”. “In this same year 2003 continues Massafra we will also recall the tenth anniversary of the Pope’s visit to our country, and the tenth anniversary of the reconstitution of the permanent episcopal presence in Albania”.
