© Vatican News

In his address to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis mentioned the role of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme:

“Last March [the Holy See] adhered to the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, an initiative aimed at showing how culture can be at the service of peace and a means of unification between different European societies, thus fostering concord among peoples. This is a token of particular esteem for an Organization that this year celebrates the seventieth anniversary of its foundation. The Holy See has cooperated with the Council of Europe for many decades and recognizes its specific role in the promotion of human rights, democracy and legality in an area that would embrace Europe as a whole.”

(Full speech available online here).

On 27 November 2018, a conference on Cultural Routes as “journeys of faith and encounter” has been co-organised by the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the Council of Europe and by the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Europe, intended to highlight the recent accession of the Holy See to the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.