In the Catholic heart of Bulgaria, Pope Francis celebrated a special Mass for 245 children receiving their first Communion and thanked them for helping him, their parents and grandparents remember their own first Communion.
"Today you have made it possible for us to relive that joy and to celebrate Jesus, present in the bread of life," the pope told the children May 6 in Rakovski's Church of the Sacred Heart.
While only about 1 percent of Bulgaria's population is Catholic, in Rakovski the vast majority of the city's 27,000 people are Catholic.
