Shkodre (Fides Service) - "It is from this forgiveness, received, welcomed and offered, that in the fertile soil of your hearts new shoots of hope will blossom. Only God's unconditioned love can in fact help the human soul to remove from the heart the dark shadows and the wounds still open". A call to show forgiveness and to work for reconciliation was made by Cardinal Sepe on a pastoral visit to Albania 8-12 November. On Sunday November 10, presiding Mass at Shkodre Cathedral, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples recalled the terrible persecution suffered by believers in Albania under years of Communist dictatorship. "If I look at your streets I see that everywhere they are bathed in the blood of martyrs and paved with the testimony of countless confessors of Christ. Still today we are dumbfounded by the testimony of those who survived and who saw… and yet these heroic witnesses, most of them unknown, gave unexpected new vitality to the Church in Albania. It is really true that a persecuted Church has a great future. The blood of martyrs was a source of new impulse and vigour. In fact in these ten years the Church has resumed her activity working mainly with initiatives of charity to uplift the people from the serious religious economic and social crisis into which they had fallen. With the help of zealous missionaries, the local Church rediscovered the roots of the faith, walking the arduous path of justice in God and Christian forgiveness." Cardinal Sepe voiced thanks to God for the many missionaries at work in Albania to proclaim the Gospel and help the Church to mature. He then launched an appeal: "Beloved Church of Shkodrë, I ask you to carry beyond your borders the faith you have received. In this way your own faith will be strengthened and you will be a light for the many souls who are longing to know Christ." Lastly Card. Sepe had words of encouragement for all the members of the local Church. To priests he said "if you are generous with the Lord, he will be generous with you"; to families he said " realise that you cooperate with the creative work of God, you are children of the God of peace, capable of understanding, tolerance and reciprocal forgiveness"; to Catholic youth he said, "learn to live like Christ, like people who are risen from the dead. Be generous, fly high like the eagle on your national flag". See complete text of homily in English (Fides Service 11/11/2002)