Hearty Welcome Prepared For Pope in Sarajevo

Two days ahead of Pope Francis's visit to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo's Zetra football stadium is taking on the contours of an open-air church, as preparations for the high-level visit near completion.

"Everything will be completely ready and set up by Friday," Josip Vajdner, from the media committee for the welcome of the Pope, predicted.

Vajdner told BIRN that preparations are being finalized at other locations that will be visited by Pope on Saturday, such as the Presidency building, the youth center in Sarajevo's western suburb of Stup and the Catholic cathedral.

"As for security, we have complete trust in the police," he said, adding that he does not expect incidents. "This Pope is a man who seems to be loved even by people who are not Catholics. That is because people recognize the way he speaks from his heart," he said.

"We are all ready for a positive story to be sent from our city to the world, because Sarajevo will be in a way the center of the world in the sense of media reports," he concluded.

On Wednesday and Thursday, workers finalized positioning of the Pope's throne and the erection of a cross at the stage, draped in papal yellow and white colours, where Pope Francis will celebrate mass on Saturday.

While workers lined up chairs in lines before the central stage, young volunteers wiped the stadium clean for the main event.

The central point of the stage belonged to the white altar, made by Bozo Marincic and designed by Ilija Skocibusic from Tomislavgrad, while the cross was made by Robert Tomic from Posusje.

Its design includes many symbols of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The altar itself was constructed from three parts representing three main ethnic groups in Bosnia - Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Croats...