Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel has conferred a special award to a Slovenian church in New York for its work in promoting Slovenian culture and language.
As part of his ten-day visit to the US, Rupel visited on Saturday the Church of St. Cyrill in New York on its 90th anniversary, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release. Rupel conferred the church a special award of the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad for helping Slovenian immigrants. He said that the church's establishment 90 years ago was a demonstration of the wish of Slovenians "to preserve their culture and language and their wish for Slovenia to be independent", the ministry said in its press release. "The St. Cyrill Parish was for long the door through which Slovenian immigrants entered the US and where they found their first shelter," Rupel said as he thanked the Slovenian Franciscan order for establishing the church. The Slovenian FM also labelled the church "a home away from home" for Slovenians and "an important centre of the Slovenian way of life".