Pope Francis approached the Basilica of Santa María Maggiore on September 29 to thank the Virgin for the fruits of his apostolic visit to Luxembourg and Belgium that ended this Sunday.
“This afternoon, upon his return from the apostolic trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, Pope Francis went to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where he remained in prayer before the icon of the Virgin Salvation of the Roman People. Then, at the end of the visit, he returned to the Vatican,” the Holy See Press Office reported in a statement.
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The plane that took the Holy Father to Rome landed at Fiumicino airport around 3 p.m. in Italy. With this, the Pope completed a four-day trip that ended with the beatification of the Carmelite Anne of Jesus at the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels.
The apostolic visit began on September 26 in Luxembourg, a small duchy of just over 660,000 inhabitants, where he met with royal and civil authorities, as well as the Catholic community.
In this country, the Pontiff once again addressed the issue of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe and recalled that “ideologies are always an enemy of democracy.”
In his meeting with the Catholic community, Pope Francis referred to the secularization of the modern world and urged us to be a Church that does not retreat, but accepts the challenge of evangelizing in the midst of these environments.
Later, in Belgium, the Pontiff also met with royal and civil authorities, as well as bishops and priests, the Jesuit community and the academic world, in addition to presiding over the beatification ceremony of the nun who lived between the 16th and 17th centuries. .
He also met with teachers at the Catholic University of Louvain on September 27 and with students the following day.
The Pope’s trip to Belgium was also marked by his condemnations of sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic Church. In that sense, on Friday he had the gesture of meeting for two hours with 17 victims, from whom he heard their testimonies of pain.
In this country, Pope Francis also visited and prayed at the tomb of Baudouin, king of the Belgians who temporarily suspended his duties as monarch in order not to sign the 1990 abortion law.
In that sense, at Mass this Sunday, the Pontiff expressed his desire for the beatification process of King Baudouin to begin.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Prensa I have been sent to cover Pope Francis’ trips to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the Synodality Synod in the Vatican in 2023.