2024-04-28 12:14:20
Pope Francis left today by plane for Venice on his first trip of the year. This will test his mobility and endurance after a number of health concerns in recent months, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
It is the 87-year-old Francis’ first visit to the city since he was elected pope in 2013. It is also the first visit of the Holy Father to the Venice Biennale, a prestigious art exhibition with exhibitions sponsored by multiple countries and arranged in countless spaces .
The Vatican exhibit is housed in a women’s prison, and the pope began his trip by flying in a helicopter directly to the Giudecca prison to see the exhibit, titled Through My Eyes.
“Prison is a harsh reality, and problems such as overcrowding, lack of internal infrastructure and resources, and cases of violence, cause much suffering. But it can also become a place of moral and material rebirth,” Pope Francis said.
“Let us not forget that we all have faults that must be forgiven and wounds that must be healed,” the pope told a group of inmates and guards in the prison yard.
The unusual decision to house the Holy See pavilion in a prison underscores Francis’ repeated calls for society to rally around the poor and neglected, including the incarcerated.
The Vatican exhibition features works by nine contemporary artists who worked on the project in close collaboration with female prisoners.
This is the Pope’s first trip outside Rome since a brief visit to France in September last year. In December, he was due to attend the International Climate Conference in the United Arab Emirates, but fell ill with the flu.
Francis uses a cane or wheelchair to get around because of knee pain. The Holy Father also suffers from frequent bouts of bronchitis and flu conditions. The Pope unexpectedly pulled out of the Catholic Good Friday procession “in the interest of his health” but has since seemed fine.
After his visit to Giudecca, the pope was scheduled to travel by speedboat to a 16th-century church to talk to young Venetians. He will then be at St. Mark’s Basilica for mass.
Around 10,000 people are expected to attend the service, with Praying Mantis likely to fill the giant St. Mark’s Square in front of the basilica and watch the masses on big screens.
The trip to Venice is the first of four planned papal trips to Italy over the next three months. Francis is scheduled to visit Verona in May and Trieste in July. He is expected to attend the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Bari in June.
In September, he is about to embark on the longest foreign trip since he was on the papal throne – to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore from September 2 to 13.