Cardinal Joseph Tomko, sent from Pope John Paul II, shakes hands with Albanian President Rexhep Meidani before he beatified the catholic church in the northern town of Shkoder, 115 km from Tirana, May 24. Pope John Paul II put the first stone at the starting of the reconstruction church, destroyed from the former communist regime of the late communist dictator Enver Hoxha in 1967 when he banned religion until 1990, in his ever first visit to the tiny Balkan country in 1993.

LAZ/SB