Pope France is set to travel to the French island of Corsica on Sunday, where he will meet with President Emmanuel Macron, one week after the pontiff raised eyebrows after deciding to skip the grand reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
Besides holding talks with Macron, Francis is scheduled to attend a gathering in the island’s capital Ajaccio on popular piety, which includes expressions of faith outside of church celebrations.
The 87-year-old pope will also hold mass with several thousand worshippers.
Francis ruffled feathers in France last week when he did not join other world leaders in attending the reopening of Notre-Dame, a landmark medieval Catholic cathedral which was massively damaged by a fire some five years ago.
However, Francis will be the first pope to visit Corsica, a Mediterranean island off the southern coast of France that has long longed for greater autonomy from Paris.
Most of the island’s 350,000 inhabitants are Catholics.
It will be Francis’s final trip abroad this year, before he returns to Rome for the busy Christmas season.
Besides the usual festivities, the pope is set to open the 2025 Holy Year on Christmas Eve.
Also known as Jubilee, the Catholic Holy Year only occurs every 25 years, with millions of pilgrims expected to make the trip to Rome for the occasion.
