OFFICIAL APOSTOLIC VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS TO REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

The official apostolic visit of Pope Francis, leader of the
Catholic Church, and one of the most important religious world
leaders, to the Republic of North Macedonia had an exceptional
significance in both political and organizational sense. In this
context, protocol can be viewed as a practical tool of peace, because
this profession greatly influences the perception on how one small
country can be perceived as organized, democratic and safe. This
is why it is needed to systematically (step by step) and thoroughly
look into the activities in connection with this historical visit –
planning, organizing, coordinating, and implementing activities
related to the official visit of Pope Francis to North Macedonia.
The key goal of this paper is to plainly explain the official apostolic
visit of Pope Francis to our state through the prism of protocol as
a practical peace tool. In addition to protocol, a visit of a highranking official such as the Pope needs to also be looked at through
the context of diplomacy because it is of exceptional importance
to point out that a meticulous organization of one such event
can have implications over the bilateral relations between North
Macedonia and Vatican. The visit of Pope Francis is explained in
chronological order, from his arrival all the way to the departure of
the Vatican delegation from the Skopje International Airport. This
paper also includes an in-depth analysis of all elements of this visit,
because such an approach helps puzzle in all the parts of the mosaic
into one perfect, harmonic and full composition. A successfully
conducted official visit of this rank represents a positive impulse
which can greatly benefit the Republic of North Macedonia and its
international reputation. Methodologically, this paper is based on
none-participation observation in which the author although not
part of the observed group conducts a personal observation of the
entire course of the official apostolic visit.