Pope Francis said that Macedonia and Bulgaria are two completely different nations, responding to a journalist’s question about the impressions of the visit to the two countries over the past three days.

They are two completely different nations. Bulgaria is a nation with a centuries-old tradition. Macedonia, on the other hand, has a centuries-old tradition, but not as a state … As a nation that eventually grew to form a nation. It is a beautiful fight, he said aboard the papal plane from Skopje to Rome.

The Pope also added that Macedonia has always had an identity and now it is consolidated as a people with small and big problems.