Pope Francis has announced that he will visit Greece and Cyprus “the first weekend of December” for his last trip of 2021, in an interview with Argentinian news agency Telam and Spanish media Religion Digital published on October 22.
He also announced a plan for the year 2022 of trips to Congo and Hungary, and mentioned Papua New Guinea and East Timor.
“The first weekend of December, I will be visiting Greece and Cyprus,” Pope Francis said, explaining that the Holy See was still working on the final agenda for this trip.
According to a Greek bishop, the pontiff’s trip could include a visit to the island of Lesbos where he already visited in 2016. There, he went to a refugee camp and returned to Italy with 12 of the refugees .
The pontiff also affirmed that he “had in mind” two trips, to the Congo and to Hungary.
The Pope has not been to Africa since his 2019 tour of Mauritius, Madagascar and Mozambique. He did not say whether he was thinking of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of the Congo, or both countries.
Regarding Hungary, his brief visit to Budapest to close the Eucharistic Congress in September 2021 was not considered a pontifical trip.
The Pope also said he wanted to “settle the unpaid bill for the trip to Papua New Guinea and East Timor,” a tour scheduled for 2020 but canceled due to the pandemic. This was perhaps his own way of saying that he also intends to go there in 2022.
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