Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič paid tribute to the Holy Father with a prayer

The President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič was moved by the news of the Holy Father’s death. He spoke for all Slovaks, when he expressed his deepest esteem and humility. “In the 21st and 20th centuries, John Paul II as the Holy Father did a great good for people all over the world,” said the moved President in respect to the deceased Holy Father. After the Mass for the Dead, held for John Paul II in the Concathedral – Saint Martin’s Dome in Bratislava, which Ivan Gašparovič attended along with a great number of the faithful, the President expressed his wish that “the soul of the Pope, who has passed away, would continue to live in the Holy Father’s kingdom.”

When the Mass came to an end, President Ivan Gašparovič invited Henryk Nowacky, the Apostle Nuncio in the Slovak Republic, Ján Sokol, the Archbishop, Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Bratislava and Trnava and Ján Formánek, the Deacon of the city of Bratislava, to the Presidential Palace. In the chapel of the Presidential Palace, they prayed, and so paid tribute to the memory of the deceased John Paul II, the Pope who loved Slovakia and the whole world.

The flags on the court of the Presidential Palace were lowered to half-mast as a symbol of mourning.