2023-07-29 13:07:14
His historic visit had already been announced, but it will eventually be extended. The Vatican announced on Saturday July 29 that Pope Francis will visit Marseilles on September 22 and 23. When the diocese of Marseilles had initially announced its visit, in March, the program envisaged only one day of presence of the pope in France.
The detailed program, made public on Saturday by the Holy See, specifies in particular that the pontiff will arrive in the middle of the afternoon on Friday, September 22 and will be welcomed at Marseille airport by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron. Pope Francis will then lead a prayer in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde, before a moment of religious meditation near the Memorial to Migrants Missing at Sea.
On Saturday morning, Francis will have a private meeting with people in economic precariousness, before going to the Pharo Palace, where the exchanges between seventy bishops and seventy young people from around the Mediterranean will conclude.
A private meeting of the pontiff with Mr. Macron will follow. His visit will end with what is surely the most anticipated event for the faithful: the holding of a high mass by the pontiff in the mythical Stade-Vélodrome, in front of more than 60,000 people, at 4:15 p.m.
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This visit by the pope to France will be a first since that of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, in 2008. Pope Francis certainly visited Strasbourg in 2014, but during a visit to the European institutions.
“With all of France, we are delighted to receive the Holy Father, who will participate, with bishops and young people from all around the Mediterranean, in the Marseille edition of the Mediterranean Meetings”responded Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, in a press release.
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