Abidjan, 26 September, 2020 / 10:17 pm (ACI Africa).
At a ceremony organized to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the West African nation of Ivory Coast Monday, September 21, a postal stamp bearing the effigy of Pope Francis and Ivory Coast’s President, Alassane Ouattara, was unveiled.
“This Postal Stamp is a symbolic and historical testimony of the 50 years of excellent ties between Ivory Coast and the Holy See,” the representative of the Holy Father in Ivory Coast, Archbishop Paolo Borgia said during the September 21 event at took place at the Presidential Palace in Ivory Coast’s economic capital, Abidjan.
Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Ivory Coast were established on October 26, 1970, with the appointment of the first Ivorian ambassador to the Holy See and the first Apostolic Nuncio to Ivory Coast.
According to Archbishop Borgia, since 1970, “a significant diplomatic activity has been carried out, with the signing of conventions to strengthen bilateral cooperation, in mutual respect and to the benefit of the Catholic Church and the entire people of Ivory Coast.”
He described the official visit of President Ouattara to Pope Benedict XVI in November 2012 “as a concretization of the bilateral relations existing between the two states.”
