The local community objected to his decision to host the family.

Father Paulo Cortezi, who is returning to Italy, said he is now a refugee himself.

"I am leaving Bulgaria with my head up, proud, innocent.

"I sought to protect the innocent, decent, educated, honest, kind, humble and scared Syrians. This is not politics … I did not succeed, we did not succeed.

"God forgive me," he added.

A group of Bulgarians from a civil society pressure group called on head of state President Roumen Radev to support Cortezi.

They asked Radev to "condemn manifestations of Nazism and xenophobia and to use all the power given to him by the constitution to counter illegal actions by mayors and municipal councillors across the country".

Although the Bulgarian Catholic Church supports Cortezi, the country's far larger Orthodox community is not encouraging.

Source

• Eurasia Review
• The Sofia Globe
• Image: You Tube

The Church protected the country's Jewish minority during the Holocaust.

A Bulgarian-Israeli lawyer is spearheading the campaign.

Moshe Aloni is seeking support for a campaign to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the Church.

He said he is hoping the campaign will succeed, to honour the Church's "brave acts of heroism".

These included voting unanimously to condemn antisemitic laws during World War II and for going against planned deportation of the country's 48,000 Jews to Nazi death camps in Europe.

A petition to support the nomination was launched last year. So far it has 740 signatures of a target of 1,000.

The petition notes while the Bulgarian government was an ally of Nazi Germany, the church showed bravery and leadership by fighting against antisemitic laws.

The Metropolitan (Bishop) Stephan, the head of the Sofian Church, and the highest ranking Bulgarian Church official during the Holocaust, and Metropolitan Kiril, the head of the Church in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv were both named as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2001.

That honour was awarded because of strong opposition to the anti-Jewish policies of the Bulgarian regime.

It was also because the pair took active steps against the country's policy of deporting the Jews of Bulgaria and handing them over to the Germans.

Source

• The Jerusalem Post
• Image: The Jerusalem Post