Healing Old Wounds

When Pope John Paul II arrives in Bulgaria this week he is expected to make the usual noises about healing the rift between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. He will kiss a basket of Bulgarian soil and accept a copy of a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary. But Bulgarians are hoping his visit will accomplish something more. At a low point in the cold war 20 years ago, the country was implicated in the attempt to assassinate John Paul in Rome. No Bulgarian was convicted, but the allegation cast a shadow on the country's reputation that many Bulgarians believe...