VATICAN CITY -- Keeping up foreign travel despite his frail condition, Pope John
Paul II will visit Azerbaijan and Bulgaria in May, the Vatican said
Wednesday.
It was the Vatican's first confirmation of the trip that had long been in the
planning stages.
The Vatican said it will take place May 22-26, but did not give details.
John Paul, who will turn 82 on May 18, cut back his participation in several
Holy Week ceremonies because of what the Vatican described as arthrosis, a
joint disease involving destruction of cartilage.
The Vatican on Tuesday denied an Italian newspaper report that surgery was
planned on his ailing knee.
The pope's voice is often slurred and his hands tremble, both symptoms of
Parkinson's disease.
The May trip is part of John Paul's efforts to improve relations with
non-Catholics.
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus mountains, is heavily
Muslim while Bulgaria is predominantly Orthodox Christian.
Bulgarian leaders hope a papal visit will help dispel lingering suspicions that
Bulgarian secret service officers were involved in the 1981 assassination
attempt on the pope by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.
Three Bulgarians suspected of complicity in the shooting were acquitted by an
Italian court for lack of evidence.