PM says Pope Francis will visit Romania next year

Romania prime minister Viorica Dancila said Pope Francis will visit Romania in 2019, according to local Mediafax. Previous information was showing that a visit is possible this year, as Pope Francis received official invitations from the Romanian president and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in 2017. Dancila paid a two-day visit to the Vatican on May 10-11, during which she was also received in an audience by His Holiness Pope Francis. According to the Romanian government’s press release about the visit, the prime minister also had meetings with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, State Secretary of His Holiness, the Grand Master of the Malta Sovereign Order, Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, and with the President of the Sant’Egidio Community, Marco Impagliazzo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdwBkZQ1Vf4 If he decides to come to Romania, Pope Francis would be the second pontiff to visit the country after Pope John Paul II’s visit in May 1999. Pope Francis accepts to be honorary member of the Romanian Academy Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com (photo source: Gov.ro)