Patriarch of Bulgaria's Orthodox Christian church dies after long illness

The 78-year-old had been hospitalised with lung disease since November last year.

Transcript

00:00 Tributes continue to pour in for the leader of Bulgaria`s Orthodox Christian Church. Patriarch

00:07 Neophyte passed away on Wednesday from multiple organ failure after a long illness.

00:14 Parliamentarians observed a minute of silence for the 78-year-old. He was the first elected

00:19 head of the church in the post-Soviet era and sought to restore its reputation tainted

00:24 by links to the communist secret police. Orthodox Christians make up over 80 percent of the

00:30 country`s nearly 7 million people.

00:32 [SWOOSH]