Leo
Augustine and Francesca Cabrini are the two saints in whose footsteps the Bishop of Rome is following in this Italian trip, after those of 8 May in Pompeii and Naples and 23 May in Acerra, in the so-called “Land of Fires”, and after the meeting in Assisi with the Italian Episcopal Conference on 20 November last year. This is a new visit to Lombardy, which takes place a week after the end of the recent and very intense apostolic pilgrimage to Spain.
Taking off from the Vatican heliport at 1pm, the helicopter with the Pontiff on board landed at 2.39pm in Pavia, welcomed with great enthusiasm by the faithful, who flocked along the streets decorated with welcome banners and posters. In the city that houses the relics of Saint Augustine, Robert Francis Prevost thus pays homage to the founder of the religious order to which he himself belongs.
Immediately after his arrival, by car, the Pontiff went to the National Center for Oncology Hadrontherapy to meet and greet the managers, the medical staff and some children being treated, accompanied by their parents.
The subsequent stops of the papal visit are the Convent of the Augustinian Fathers for the meeting with the brothers; the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro for the celebration of the Word and the veneration of the relics of the holy bishop of Hippo; and the cathedral, for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. There is also space for a brief greeting to the South American community, this too a “return to the origins” for the Pope who in the past was a missionary and then bishop in Peru for a long time. Finally, in Piazza della Vittoria, the embrace with the citizens of Pavia.
In the late afternoon, by helicopter, Leo In the evening, again by helicopter, the return to the Vatican.
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