The First Foreign Guest

Bishop Capucci enters Iran's Islamic Republic on April, 04, 1979 as the first foreign guest, and is received warmly by people and Imam Khomeini (s). Regarding this event, bishop Capucci says:
"I was welcomed by thousands of religious brothers in the airport. We left for Imam's house. He received and embraced me warmly, then having my hand in his addressed the press and said: You all witnessed how bishop Capucci was received. You are imbibed with lies and rumors scattered by the enemies of Islam who seek to ruin the image of this revolution. They introduce this revolution as a movement for inducing tension, prejudice and bloodbath; though they are aware of the fact that Islam (which is our model in here) is a religion supporting kindness, piety, patience and modesty. Bishop Capucci was tortured and imprisoned because he fought for the rights of Quds and its release from the captivity of Israel. He was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment, four years of which are served. He is now paroled with the intermediacy of Pope and lives in exile in Rome away from his fatherland, people and Quds…"
Bishop Capucci visited many places while being in Iran, including the location of the Republican Party and the embassy of Israel, which became the embassy of Palestine after Iran's Islamic revolution. He then returned to his fatherland.
Once he traveled to Iran on the occasion of Iranians conquering the American embassy and taking the Americans as hostages. It is interesting that Imam Khomeini only negotiated this issue with bishop Capucci. In this regard, bishop Capucci says:
"I am proud of the precious trust Imam Khomeini puts on me. He permitted me to intervene with this issue of hostages, or as our religious brother said the issue of American spies. I intervened with issue at a time when no one even knew that the hostages were alive or dead, healthy or sick. By Imam's decree Iran's TV was on air by a religious society. I gave 30 seconds to each of the hostages to talk to their families, wives and children. Once on the occasion of Christ's birthday, Christmas and the anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution, I delivered the letters sent to each to each one of them and also delivered letters written by the hostages to their families. Each time I arranged a meeting in Iran's TV for the American hostages while America started a military operation in Tabas, Iran. This military operation failed and instead of leading to the freedom of the American hostages, killed American soldiers. Carter wanted to use the issue of American hostages as a cover for his military failure. When the release time of the hostages arrived, I traveled to Iran and stayed here for one week, and also I had a meeting with Imam Khomeini. Then we took the hostages to Swiss and submitted them to the Red Cross and the ministry of foreign affairs of Swiss. The second chance I was given to visit Iran was on the occasion of the problem associated with the "thinking schools". This time I stayed for a month in Tehran and thanks God we managed to solve the problem by God's permission, and Imam Khomeini's goodwill and purity."
In this regard Imam Khomeini in volume 13, page 68 of his work titled "Sahifeh" writes:
"This is the second time I receive letters and persons sent by Pope. The first time it was on the occasion of American spies and the American embassy, which upon investigation became clear that was not an embassy serving American diplomats; it turned out that this location was a house of spies gathering there to harm Iran and its nations. Maybe Pope, unaware of this fact, had supported these people, but I made him aware of this situation in details. He wrote letters to the schools he had established, called "thinking schools" and asked us to let these schools continue their activities. We have no problems with Christians, Jews or other nations, and we do not stop the activity of their associated schools if these schools are only for the sake of teaching and learning. Teaching Christ's (peace be upon him) instructions or those of other prophets, makes no difference to us. But if we figure out that these schools are acting as houses for spies we will not stand it…Of course this is one of the responsibilities of our government to investigate this issue. As long as these centers are used for teaching purposes there is no problem, but God forbidden if these are spy houses active under the name of 'school', the nation and the government both will not stand it…"
Bishop Capucci was active in Iran on the occasion of religious rituals such as Quds Day, Imam Khomeini's funeral, etc. He has always considered fighting for the rights of Palestinian and other oppressed nations as a sacred ideal and has took actions for helping the Palestinian re-own the soil of their conquered country.