Vatican City.-Pope Francis travels to Luxembourg this Thursday, before moving to Brussels until Sunday, a journey in which he will meet with Catholic faithful from two countries that host many European institutions.
In a very tense international context, he will express “a word addressed to the heart of Europe” and will speak “about the role he wants to play in the world in the near future” for welcome and solidarity between nations, according to the director of the Press of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni.
Prior to his departure, the pope described the “terrible escalation” in Lebanon as “unacceptable,” and called on the international community to do everything possible to put an end to it.
This visit by the Argentine Jesuit will also be the occasion to address the painful file of sexual violence against minors by members of the clergy in Belgium.
The pope’s plane will land at 10:00 am (08:00 GMT) at Findel airport in Luxembourg.
He will be received by Grand Duke Henri, Grand Duchess Maria Theresa, Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, close to Francis.
In Luxembourg, the head of the Catholic Church will speak in the morning before the authorities and in the afternoon at the Notre-Dame cathedral he will receive hundreds of people chosen at random.
Others will be able to greet him on the streets of the capital during a popemobile tour under high security.
It is the first papal visit to Luxembourg since 1985, when John Paul II celebrated a mass in the capital with 60,000 faithful, the largest in the history of that country.
Afterwards the population of the small Grand Duchy doubled, especially due to the attractiveness of its financial center. Nestled between Belgium, Germany and France, Luxembourg has 654,000 inhabitants, of which 41% are Catholic, according to the Vatican.
Bruni said peace will be one of the main themes of the seven speeches (all in Italian) that Francis will deliver during the trip.
A word “in memory of those lands that have strongly desired and worked to create the conditions of peace after the suffering suffered during the war, just when the continent risks being dragged back into conflict,” Bruni added.
Bruni mentioned details of the four-day trip, which will include “on several occasions” meetings with some EU authorities and related institutions.
The Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, who is in New York to represent the Holy See at the 79th UN General Assembly, will not be present on the trip.
On Wednesday, in his weekly general audience, the pope briefly referred to his visit to Luxembourg and Belgium as an occasion to give a “new impulse to faith in those countries.”
“Pope Francis visits a very different society from that seen by John Paul II,” noted political analyst Philippe Poirier.
“In 1985, 79% of Luxembourgers said they followed a religion, in 90% of cases Catholic,” but “since 2023, a majority of the population of Luxembourg is not religious,” he explained.
Francis’ visit was “unexpected” because the Grand Duchy, due to its size, was not among “the first countries to be visited by the pope,” said the priest and director of the Luxembourg School of Religion and Society, Jean Ehret.
Since his election in 2013, Francis has avoided visiting large European countries of Catholic heritage, preferring countries in Africa, Asia and the southern hemisphere, usually dismissed and which he refers to as “peripheries” of Europe.
The Vatican delegation will travel to Brussels in the afternoon. The Belgian part of their tour will end with a mass on Sunday morning at the King Baudouin stadium.
The pope, who now only moves around in a wheelchair or with the help of a cane due to knee pain, has had health problems in recent months.
Despite everything, he visited four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania in September, a long trip of 33,000 km in which he was energetic and enthusiastic.Infobae.
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2024-09-27 18:10:09
