Ahead of the papal visit to Macedonia, it was announced that Pope Francis will not be visiting an Orthodox Christian religious site.

The Pope will meet religious leaders and will pray at the Mother Teresa memorial home built at the site of the now demolished Catholic church Sacred Heart where she had one of her visions. The Pontiff will also visit the more recently built Catholic church Sacred Heart, but he will not visit an Orthodox shrine.

In Bulgaria, the Pope visited St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral and bowed before the icons of Ss. Cyril and Methodius. He will not visit an Orthodox shrine here. Fine, maybe the idea was not to discombobulate the man, he is in an advanced age after all, observed, tongue in cheek, commentator Bogdan Ilievski.

Pope Francis comes for the first visit for a Pope to independent Macedonia on Tuesday.