Pope Francis will visit the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on December 15, just days after the reopening of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, but he will not attend the event, the Vatican said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has invited the pope to attend the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame in Paris on December 7, AFP reported.
However, Pope Francis, 87, has declined and will instead travel to Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, for a conference on Catholicism in the Mediterranean, the Vatican said.
“The star of the Notre Dame reopening ceremony is Notre Dame itself,” said Eric de Moulin-Beaufort, head of the French Bishops’ Conference, adding that the pope did not want his presence to distract from the essence of the event.
The cathedral was damaged in a major fire in 2019.
The pope will visit Corsica for the first time, an island where, according to the local church organization, 90 percent of the 350,000 inhabitants are Catholic.
He will give two addresses and lead a mass before meeting Macron, the Vatican said.
Francis, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on December 17, has visited France twice since becoming head of the Catholic Church in 2013.
