In the Wall Street Journal story I wrote about in another entry the claim was made that "Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung became the first Communist head of state to visit the Holy See."
Blog participant RBrown reminded me of the visit of Mikhail Gorbachev on 1 December 1989, which we both witnessed. I did some digging and found the front page of the weekly English language edition of L’Osservatore Romano on that visit. Biretta tip to RBrown for reminding me about that: o{]:¬)
It could be that the reporter felt that the Holy See was elsewhere during the Papacy of JPII.
Or it could just be an honest oversight.
:o)
Father,
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is not the first communist Head of State to visit the Holy See. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is not a Head of State. He is a Head of Government. The Vietnamese Head of State is President Nguyen Minh Triet.
James Daly