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Pope Francis\u2019 one-day visit to the French island of Corsica on Sunday, two days before his 88th birthday, will put a dual focus on the Mediterranean, highlighting local traditions of popular piety on the one hand and migrant deaths and wars on the other. <\/p>\n
The visit to Corsica\u2019s capital Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon, will be one of the briefest of his papacy beyond Italy\u2019s borders, just about nine hours on the ground, including a 40-minute visit with French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n
It is the first papal visit to the island, which Genoa ceded to France in 1768 and is located closer to the Italian mainland than France.<\/p>\n
Papa Francescu, the pope\u2019s name in Corsican, will address more than 400 participants at the Conference on Popular Religiosity in the Mediterranean, organized by the bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo.<\/p>\n
The pope\u2019s remarks will include reflections on local religious traditions, especially strongly held in in Corsica, including the cult of the Virgin Mary, known locally as the Madonuccia, which protected the island from the plague in 1656 when it was still under Genoa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mediterranean is the backdrop of this trip, surrounded by situations of crisis and conflict,\u2019\u2019 which is expected to be echoed in the pope\u2019s address, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The pope has often referred to the tragedy of migration, which he has said has turned the Mediterranean into “Europe’s largest cemetery.”<\/p>\n
After the conference address, he will travel to the 17th-century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta to meet with clergy, stopping along the way at the statue of the Madonuccia. Francis will celebrate Mass at the Place d\u2019Austerlitz park, where it is said Napoleon played as a child. Around 7,000 faithful are expected. He will meet privately with Macron at the airport before departing for the 50-minute flight back to Rome.<\/p>\n
The pontiff pointedly did not make the trip to Paris earlier this month for the pomp surrounding the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral following the devastating 2019 fire. The visit to Corsica seems far more suited to Francis\u2019 priorities than a grand cathedral reopening, emphasizing the \u201cchurch of the peripheries.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is Francis\u2019 third trip to France, each time avoiding Paris and the protocols that a state visit entails. He visited the port of Marseille in 2023, on an overnight visit to participate in an annual summit of Mediterranean bishops, and went to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and Council of Europe.<\/p>\n
Corsica is home to more than 340,000 people and has been part of France since 1768. But the island has also seen pro-independence violence and has an influential nationalist movement, and last year Macron proposed granting it limited autonomy.<\/p>\n
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emails I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our\u00a0privacy policy Pope Francis\u2019 one-day visit to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n