SOFIA, Bulgaria - Flashing a bit of spirit despite his age and ailments, Pope John Paul II arrived Thursday in Bulgaria for the first papal visit to this former communist country once implicated in the 1981 assassination attempt against the pontiff.
John Paul's four-day stay in the overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox nation was sure to severely test his stamina, already drained by spending two days in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.
Far too frail to bend down and kiss the ground — the traditional blessing whenever a pope visits a country for the first time — the 82-year-old pontiff instead kissed a basket of soil presented to him at Sofia's airport by a boy and a girl in traditional dress.
But the pope looked stronger than usual at a formal welcoming ceremony on the central St. Alexander Nevski Square, where he took a few brisk steps with a cane to a white and gold chair on the square, then stood through the Vatican and Bulgarian anthems, clutching the chair's arms. Later, he sat hunched, occasionally lifting a steady hand to shield his face from the sunshine.
"The president is young, and that's why he's standing. He asked the pope to sit because the pope is old," John Paul quipped in Italian after President Georgi Parvanov's welcome speech.
"With deep joy I come to Bulgaria," he said in a clear voice, drawing cheers from the crowd for speaking in Bulgarian. "I am thankful to Almighty God that he honored me by granting this wish of mine, which I held close to my heart."
John Paul also praised Bulgarians for "your extraordinary contributions in saving thousands of Jews during World War II." Although Bulgaria was allied with Germany during the war, the country's king at the time defied a Nazi order to deport Jews after thousands of Bulgarians massed in protest.
The pope's visit is a historic first for Bulgaria, a nation of 8 million with just 80,000 Catholics. Many Bulgarians hoped it would finally dispel lingering suspicions that the country's secret service was behind Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca's attempt to kill the pope on St. Peter's Square in Rome.
"This visit will wipe out the undeserved taint Bulgaria has carried for the past 20 years," Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi told reporters, calling the visit "a sign of blessing."
An Italian court acquitted three Bulgarians suspected of complicity in the shooting for lack of evidence, and the pope — who was seriously wounded in the attack — pledged his love for all Bulgarians Thursday.
"I greet everyone with affection, and I say to all that I have never ceased to love the Bulgarian people," he said.
Security was heavy ahead of John Paul's arrival: Bulgarian authorities said all 27,000 of the country's police officers were either mobilized or on standby and army snipers took up positions around the airport.
The pope arrived from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, where earlier Thursday he lauded those who held out against communist repression and retained their faith.
He was wheeled into an indoor sports arena in Baku on a movable platform, and mounted the altar using a cane and helped by two aides. His breathing was audibly labored, and as he has often done before, he passed the microphone to an assistant to read most of his sermon.
In mostly Muslim Azerbaijan, which the Vatican says has a tiny Catholic flock of only 120, John Paul also reached out to the Orthodox Church with a message praising all believers for keeping the faith during years of communist persecution.
"You saw your religion mocked as mere superstition, as an attempt to escape the responsibilities of engagement in history. For this reason, you were regarded as second-class citizens and were humiliated and marginalized in many ways," he said.
John Paul was bringing a message of hope and reconciliation to Bulgaria, where he was to meet with the patriarch of Orthodox Christians and with top Jewish and Muslim religious leaders. He also planned to visit an Orthodox monastery near the southern town of Rila and hold an outdoor Mass to the southeast in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city.
The pope plans to beatify three Catholic priests who were executed in 1952 after being convicted of spying. Bulgaria was under communist rule at the time, and the Vatican has declared that the three were martyrs of the faith.
The trip, John Paul's 96th overall and his first abroad since September, has underscored his ailing health. The pope's speech is slurred and his hands tremble — symptoms of Parkinson's disease — and he walks with difficulty because of knee and hip ailments. For the first time, a motorized platform was used for him to get on and off the papal aircraft so he wouldn't have to climb steps.