Pope Leo XIV is set to visit the small European republic of San Marino on Saturday before travelling to the Italian coastal city of Rimini for a major Catholic gathering that brings together religious, cultural and political figures.
The pontiff will spend the morning in San Marino, a 60-square-kilometre enclave with a population of about 33,000 located in the Apennine Mountains.
The visit is part of a series of short pastoral trips he has undertaken within Europe during the summer.
The Chicago-born pope, who heads the Catholic Church and Vatican City, will meet San Marino authorities before leading a prayer service at the local basilica.
Following his engagements in the world’s oldest republic, Leo will travel to Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast, where he is expected to participate in the annual Rimini Meeting organised by Communion and Liberation, an influential Catholic movement.
The gathering, which attracts hundreds of thousands of people each year, combines discussions on religion, culture and politics.
It has historical links to Italy’s former Christian Democratic movement, a centrist Catholic political party that dominated the country’s post-war political landscape for decades.
Leo is scheduled to deliver an address at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT), becoming the first pope since John Paul II in 1982 to participate in the event.
Among the speakers at this year’s meeting are Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, as well as Italy’s Deputy Prime Ministers, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.
Before his speech, Leo will tour an exhibition devoted to Saint Augustine, the influential fifth-century Christian theologian and a key figure in the Augustinian tradition to which the pope belongs.
The pontiff will also meet people living with disabilities and sick members of the Catholic community at Rimini Cathedral before celebrating an open-air Mass at the city’s port later in the evening.
Unlike previous papal summers that featured longer international journeys, Leo has kept his travels relatively close to home this year, with visits to Pavia, Lampedusa and Assisi.
AFP
