On 10 June 2021, to mark the centenary since the recognition of the Republic of Latvia de jure by the Holy See and the establishment of the diplomatic relations, the flag of the Vatican will be flown at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
To commemorate the landmark anniversary, a collection of articles and documents has been published, titled “100 years of Sincerity and Confidence. Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Latvia and the Holy See”. On 10 May 2021, the publication was opened in Rome, and its first copy was presented by the President of Latvia, Egils Levits, to Pope Francis, the Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City.
On 9 June, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, presented a copy of the publication to the Director of the National Library of Latvia, Andris Vilks, as a gift to the People’s Bookshelf. “This research is one more evidence of the excellent and dynamic relationship between the Republic of Latvia and the Holy See in the 21st century world, moreover because the access to documents of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII (until 1958) was opened on 2 March 2020, thereby widening horizons of research for the authors of the book,” underlines the Minister of Foreign Affairs in his introduction to the collection.
The collection includes studies by the Reverend Mihails Volohovs and Dr. hist. Inese Runce on the century-long relationship between Latvia and the Holy See as well as unpublished archival documents from the Latvian State Historical Archives of the National Archives of Latvia and the historical archives of the Section for Relations with States at the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. Its launch in Riga is taking place in cooperation with Riga Higher Institute for Religious Sciences, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Latvia, Petar Rajič, in attendance.
From the beginning of July, the collection of articles will be available for the wider public at the National Library if Latvia, the branches of the Riga City Central Library, main libraries of Latvia’s regions as well as higher education institutions across Latvia.
The collection, “100 years of Sincerity and Confidence. Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Latvia and the Holy See”, has been created with support from the public diplomacy programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs devoted to the centenary of the state of Latvia.
On 10 June, the Ambassador of Latvia to the Holy See, Elita Kuzma, and the Apostolic Nunzio, Petar Rajič, will lay flowers at the grave of the first Apostolic Nuncio to Latvia, Archbishop Antonino Zecchini (07.12.1864–17.03.1935) at Miķeļa Kapi cemetery in Riga.