Pope Francis’ 38th Apostolic Tour Abroad – September 13-15.
Joey Kariveli, Vatican City
Pope Francis’ thirty-eighth apostolic tour abroad began on Tuesday the 13th (13/09/22).
This journey is a pilgrimage of dialogue and peace, as the Pope himself described during his midday prayer last Sunday (11/09/22), asking for prayer support for his pastoral visit to Kazakhstan.
During this three-day visit, which lasts until the 15th, the presence of the Pope will be only in Nur-Sultan (Astana), the capital of Kazakhstan. The motto of this pastoral visit is “Messengers of Peace and Unity”. The purpose of the Pope’s visit is to participate in the 7th Global Conference of Leaders of World Religions and Traditional Religions, which will be organized in Nur Sultan on the 14th and 15th.
From his residence in the Vatican, the “Domus Sancte Marthe” in the name of Saint Martha, at 6.30 am Rome time, the Pope traveled by car to the international airport “Leonardo da Vinci” in Rome. From there, Papa took a flight to Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan. The aircraft carrying the Pope and his entourage took off 21 minutes behind schedule, at 7.36 am Rome time and 11.06 am India time. The Pope greeted the media workers who were with him on the airship at the start of the journey and expressed his gratitude for their help.
This pastoral visit of the Pope is in a country where Muslims are the majority and Catholics are very few. The official program on the first day of the Pope’s three-day pastoral visit is the meeting with state leaders, civil society representatives and diplomatic representatives.
On the second day, Wednesday, in the morning, the Pope will hold a silent prayer with religious leaders, attend the opening of the Seventh Conference of Leaders of World Religions and Traditional Religions, and offer the Solemnity of Praise of the Holy Cross at the Expo Grounds in the evening.
The program of the Pope on Thursday, the closing day, is a meeting with bishops, priests, deacons, priests and pastoral workers, the closing proclamation reading of the meeting of religious leaders and the closing meeting. The Pope will return to the Vatican later that evening.
25 percent of Kazakhstan’s 1.9 million people are Christians. Most of them are members of the Russian Orthodox Church. Catholics are only one percent. The inhabitants of Annadu belong to 18 officially recognized religious groups.