(ANS - Baku) - The meaning of Pope Francis’s visit to the small Catholic community of Azerbaijan - just a few hundred people, with fewer than ten clergy – is to be found in the words he spoke on the plane during the return flight to the Vatican: "I went there for the Catholics in order to go to the periphery of the Catholic community (...). It is really a periphery. It is very small. I said that it reminded me of the small community of Jerusalem, the Church in the Upper Room, waiting for the Holy Spirit (...). As I said, the reality is best seen and better understood from the peripheries than from the centre."

(ANS - Baku) - The Salesian community in Baku is ready to welcome Pope Francis on Sunday 2 October during his visit to Azerbaijan. In the capital of the country some have already arrived to welcome him: Fr Jozef Izold, Superior of the Salesian Province of Slovakia, on which the Azeri community depends; and the Provincial of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from Slovakia, Sister Janka Kurkinova. The parish of Baku is full of joy during these final hours of preparation.

(ANS - Vatican City) – By way of conclusion of the pilgrimage to the Caucasus which began in Armenia on 24-26 June, Pope Francis will visit Georgia and Azerbaijan from 30 September to 2 October. The most significant events include: an ecumenical prayer for peace in the Chaldean Catholic Church in Tbilisi; the participation, for the first time, of an Orthodox delegation at the papal Mass in M. Meskhi stadium; and prayer for peace in Syria and Iraq. In Azerbaijan Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception at the Salesian Centre.