Pope Francis prayed this Friday, September 13, in the papal Basilica of Santa María Maggiore in Rome, after concluding the longest journey of his entire pontificate.
“Tonight, upon his return from the apostolic trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, Pope Francis addressed the Basilica of Saint Mary Major,” reports the Vatican Press Office.
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In the basilica, the Holy Father remained “in prayer before the icon of the Virgin Salvation of the Roman People” (Protector of the Roman people).
“At the end of the visit, he returned to the Vatican,” the text concludes.
After the conclusion of his apostolic trip, carried out from September 2 to 13, and aboard the papal plane, the Holy Father offered a 45-minute press conference.
In it he answered various questions about topics such as the presidential elections in the United States, sexual abuse in the Church, abortion, which he described as “murder,” and the need to protect the dignity of migrants.
Francis’ trip, the 45th of his pontificate, was marked by interreligious dialogue, the promotion of peace in the world in the face of conflicts, encouragement of young people and Christian minorities, as well as a renewed exhortation to have God as the center of daily life.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.