Pope Francis will visit Corsica on Sunday. This is a historic event as he will be the first pope ever to visit this French island. The visit is expected to last approximately 10 hours and the main purpose will be to participate in a conference on folk beliefs in the Mediterranean region. The Pope will also visit places associated with Napoleon Bonaparte, who was born there.
Francis becomes the first pope to visit Corsica
Corsica is a place of folk festivals and various forms of worship and processions. It is also known for its approximately 3,000 religious brotherhoods and commitment to tradition.
– The Pope is sensitive not only to this spiritual dimension, but also to this ethnic, human dimension, where people go out into the streets and express their faith without public indoctrination, but with great simplicity and joy. There is – Cardinal François Xavier Bustillo, diocesan bishop of Ajaccio, told Vatican Media.
See also: Pope Francis appeals to the wealthy. He remembered the words of John Paul II
Approximately 7.45 Francisco flies to Corsica on an Italian airline ITA plane. At Napoleon Bonaparte Airport in Ajaxia, the main city on the island with a population of approximately 70,000 people. Residents – Land around9.
Detailed program of the Pope's visit
After a short welcome ceremony at the airport, the Pope will head to the 6th-century Baptistery of St. John the Divine. It is located in the center of Ajaccio, on Rue Napoléon, the city's main artery. This monument was discovered in 2005 during construction work.
From there, Francis will head to the Congress Exhibition Palace to take part in the final session of the conference on popular piety in the Mediterranean countries. He is scheduled to give a speech there. He then goes to pray before the statue of Our Lady of Mercy (Madonuccia), the patron saint of Ajaccio.
This announcement was made in 1656, during a plague outbreak in Italy, which ruled the island at the time. When ships from Genoa carrying sick people entered the Gulf of Ajaccio, the Presbytery of Corsica decided to place the city under the protection of Our Lady. Residents took part in a prayer procession, but then, according to tradition, the wind direction changed, as a result of which ships could no longer enter the port, thus protecting the island from the plague.
Pope Francis meets with French president
The Pope will arrive at the 16th-century cathedral at 11 a.m., meet with the clergy and say the Angelus prayer together. In one of the chapels is Eugène Delacroix's painting “Madonna of the Sacred Heart''. As Napoleon Bonaparte wrote before his death, if he didn't want to be buried in Paris, he wanted to be buried in this cathedral.
In the afternoon, the Pope is scheduled to celebrate Mass at Place de la Austerlitz, where about 7,000 people are expected to attend.
See also: Pope Francis' bruise under his chin. believers are worried
Place Austerlitz is a former building built by the Jesuits in the early 18th century and is also known as Napoleon's Grotto. As later generations have told us, Napoleon went there as a child. In the square there is a monument to the French emperor, with inscriptions containing the names of the battles fought by the emperor. Today it is one of the most frequently visited places in Corsica by tourists.
After Mass, Francisco will meet us at the airport in Ajaccio the next time. 17:30 with French President Emmanuel Macron. The Pope is scheduled to return to Rome in the evening on Corsica Airlines.
Your browser does not support video players… Read more
Source link
