TEHRAN — “I didn’t imagine Iran being open-minded and ready to negotiate and interact with the world to this extent,” the head of the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (ORP) has said.

Bishop Mosnignor Andreatta, who had visited Iran at the head of a delegation from Vatican City, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, paid a visit to some tourist attractions in the capital Tehran.

“I see the public believing in interaction with the world and are aware of the fact that tourism can be a great help to their economy and this suggests how mentally ready they are,” Andreatta told ISNA in an interview published on Wednesday.

“I didn’t think of Iran as such a country at all,” Andreatta added.

“I have read Ayatollah Khamenei’s letter to Western youth, and that’s exactly why I’m in Iran. I want to draw world’s Christian believers’ attention to a country which has a peaceful and charitable face. I believe that when world leaders’ minds and hearts fail, the feet and hearts of pilgrims can surely lead the way to promote peace,” he noted.

The Supreme Leader’s first letter to Western youth was published around two months ago after the publishing of some offensive photos which disrespected the tenets of Islam in a French magazine, and as a response to rising Islamophobia from the Western media and authorities.


He wrote his second letter to western youth sometime after Paris attack, November 13, this time highlighting the common concerns over international terrorism and extremism.


Later, the Iranian president made a trip to the Vatican, where he met Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, to emphasize the need to promote peace and avoid violence and extremism. Now, a delegation from the Vatican has traveled to Iran to take a further step, beyond mere dialogue, to help create a world free of violence.

He further noted that Vatican and Iran believe that they can spread peace and establish a liaison between religions throughout the world by “tourism”.

Vatican messengers’ primary mission is to consolidate friendship and peace, bring Christianity and Islam closer, and in the next steps to plan pilgrimage and tourist trips to Iran for the world’s Catholics, especially those from the Vatican and Italy, explained head of the Vatican-related pilgrimage agency.

Bishop Andreatta stated, “The level of Iran and the Vatican’s relations and interactions is currently at its historical best.”

Pointing to the years of dialogue between the Vatican and Iran, the bishop said, “Today, we are witnessing that the dialogues have come to fruition.”

He regretted that European media outlets, including Italians, always make general statements and owing to the accounts they give of Islam it has turned it into a metaphor for violence and extremism.

“This is exactly why we insist on running these tours from Europe and Italy to Iran, so that people themselves can see Islam in a new light in a country like Iran. A peaceful place, where people of different beliefs and religions live next to each other in peace and stability,” Andreatta remarked.

Referring to the Supreme Leader’s letter to Western youth, the head of the OPR said, “I read this letter, and we sent it to all the universities and Christian youth organizations in Italy, so that they could read it and realize there’s another interpretation of Islam that presents itself in this format.”

Andreatta added, “I have read a lot about Iran before, and knew that Iran was not the country that the Western media have portrayed to us, nonetheless when we arrived, I realized how strong the media could be.”

“After returning to the Vatican, we will initiate a project with the collaboration of the Iranian Ministry of Culture, the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, and Iran's Cultural Heritage Handicrafts and Tourism Organization authorities to plan a trip for a group of well-known Italian journalists and managers of pilgrimage agencies who run tours from Italy to different holy places in the world, so that they can get to know Iran better,” he heralded.

Each of them can arrange trips for tourists from Italy or other European countries to Iran and plan travel itineraries for them, the bishop stated.

It was scheduled for the Italian delegation to visit Isfahan and shrine city of Qom.

MQ/PA

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A picture of Andreatta visiting Golestan Palace Building of Wind catchers in Tehran.


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“I have read Ayatollah Khamenei’s letter to Western youth, and that’s exactly why I’m in Iran