From a logistical point of view, it would probably have been easier to fly Azerbaijan's entire Catholic population to Rome--all 120 of them--along with their two Salesian pastors, two nuns, and one brother, rather than hauling John Paul II out here to the edge of the Caspian Sea.
All by itself, the pope's Airbus 321, with its contingent of journalists, security officers and the papal retinue, outnumbered the country's Catholics. There is only one Catholic parish in Azerbaijan, ...