Pope Francis will visit the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on December 15, missing the reopening of Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral, which was devastated by fire in 2019, the Vatican said.
French President Emmanuel Macron invited the 87-year-old pontiff to attend the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame in Paris on December 7.
But Francis declined and will instead head to Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, for a conference on Catholic faith in the Mediterranean, the Vatican said. “The star of the Notre Dame reopening ceremony is Notre Dame itself,” said Eric de Moulin-Beaufort, head of the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF). The pope did not want his presence to detract from the event, he added.
Instead, the pope will travel to Corsica, the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean. It will be the first visit by a pope to the island, where 90 percent of the 350,000 people are Catholic, according to the local church, and religious traditions such as processions remain deeply rooted. He will deliver two addresses and lead a mass in the afternoon before meeting Macron, the Vatican said. Francis will arrive in Ajaccio at 9 a.m. and leave shortly after 6 p.m. Francis, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on Dec. 17, has been to France twice since becoming head of the world Catholic Church in 2013. He visited Strasbourg in 2014, where he addressed the European Parliament, and last year went to Marseille for a meeting of bishops from the Mediterranean region, where he met Macron. He has yet to make a state visit to France, one of Europe's most populous Catholic countries.
He has also yet to make state visits to Spain, the United Kingdom or Germany. The Argentine pontiff prefers to visit smaller Catholic communities, from Malta to Mongolia. | BGNES
