The French Diocese of Ajaccio announced this week that Pope Francis will make a daytrip to the island of Corsica next month, further prioritizing the Mediterranean region, the Crux website reports today (Nov. 23, 2024).
Pope Francis will visit Corsica on Dec. 15, according to an announcement on the website of the local Diocese of Ajaccio, which is led by Cardinal Francois--Xavier Bustillo.
The theme of the pope's trip will be, "Jesus went about doing good." The trip will come just two days before Francis's 88th birthday on Dec.17.
It will mark the first papal trip to the French Mediterranean island.
Francis's visit to the island will mark his 47th foreign trip since his election to the papacy in 2013, and it will be his third time in France.
French President Emmanuel Macron invited Pope Francis to Paris for the Dec. 8 reopening of the city's famed Notre Dame cathedral, after a fire destroyed vast portions of it in 2019. However, that day, the pope will be celebrating Mass with a slew of new cardinals who will have received a red hat the day before, during a Dec. 7 consistory.
The pope's message to Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon, will likely refer to Europe's deeply Christian roots, and could include calls for greater social responsibility toward migrants and the poor, and for attention to the climate issue.
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