Pilgrim Pope set to visit the island of Corsica on Sunday

By Salvatore Cernuzio

On the one hand, popular piety, the faith of ordinary people, expressed in pilgrimages, acts of devotion in sanctuaries, traditional songs and prayers; on the other, the Mediterranean with its challenges, the echoes of war, the tragedy of migration that has turned the Mare Nostrum into an ‘open-air cemetery’: Pope Francis’ apostolic journey on 15 December to Corsica, Napoleon's birthplace, known as Île de beauté, the “island of beauty” with its landscapes framed by forests, beaches and mountains, endangered by man-made environmental crises, will encompass these two elements.

It is Pope Francis' 47th apostolic journey. Compared with the long pilgrimage in September to South-East Asia and Oceania, it is a ‘lightning’ trip of less than twelve hours that will also see the Pope meet ‘face to face’ for about forty minutes with French President Emmanuel Macron.

‘Francescu’, the first Pope in Ajaccio

It is also the first visit by a Pope to the capital city of Ajaccio, although Angelo Roncalli, who later became Pope John XXIII, visited the island as nuncio in Paris in 1952.

St John XXIII's journey was recalled by the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, in the usual briefing with the journalists who will follow Francis on his international trip.

“The Pope is going there to meet the Christian people of the island and for the meeting on popular religiosity,” Bruni said, referencing the Conference on Popular Religiosity in the Mediterranean, a two-day event organised by the bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo.

Papa Francescu – the Pope’s name in Corsican, as seen in the blue logo for the visit – will address Conference’s more than 400 participants, who include Bishops, academics, and representatives from the various countries that surround the Mediterranean, including France, Italy and Spain.

Conference on Popular Religiousness in the Mediterraean

There will be three main appointments for the Pope, who will leave Rome’s Fiumicino Airport at 7:45 am Saturday for the hour-and-a-quarter to Ajaccio’s, which is dedicated to Napoleon.

There he will be welcomed by the French Ministers of the Interior and for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and by four young people who will offer him flowers. After anthems, military honours, the presentation of the delegations, and a private meeting with the ministers, Pope Francis will travel by closed and then open car to the Palais des Congrès et d'Exposition d'Ajaccio for the Conference.

Along the way, he will first stop briefly at the Baptistery of Saint John, which dates back to the 6th century but was discovered in 2005 during work on a car park. The Pope’s first speech during the visit will take place in the auditorium of the Palais, where, Bruni said, “the crises of the Mediterranean are likely to be echoed”. Outside, Pope Francis will greet some young people who will release coloured balloons.

Meeting with the clergy and Mass with thousands of faithful

The Pope will then travel in a closed car to the late Renaissance cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, for the meeting with priests, religious, consecrated, seminarians. Children's songs, flowers, greetings, blessings, and finally the recitation of the Angelus will follow.

In the tour-de-force there will be time for a siesta at the bishop’s palace until 2.45pm, when Pope Francis will pass through the crowd as he makes his way to the Place d'Austerlitz – the large park called ‘U Casone’ in memory of an old building where, according to tradition, Napoleon used to go and play as a child.

This is the site where the Pope will offer the Holy Mass, which is expected to be attended by some 7,000 faithful. In addition to the homily, Pope Francis will offer a word of thanksgiving to the island as his visit draws to a close.

The final act, will take place at the airport, with the previously mentioned private conversation with Macron, around 5.30pm. No other meetings with the head of state are planned at the moment.

Press conference

From Corsica, the return flight will be about 50-minute flight, with the Pope landing in Fiumicino around 7:05 p.m. During this short journey, the Pope is expected to hold the customary press conference with the approximately 80 journalists from international newspapers in his retinue: “It should be possible with the timing,” Matteo Bruni suggested, although he added the press conference may be shorter than usual.

Reason for the trip

In response to a question on the “real motivation” for the pontiff’s visit to Ajaccio just two days before his 88th birthday, Bruni explained that “the Pope's attention to the theme of popular devotion and religiosity is well known, as demonstrated by the visits to so many shrines during his travels: in Latin America and in other parts of the world”.

Then there is the theme of the Mediterranean, also dear to Pope Francis, with Bruni noting, “Two themes that connect well”.

The director of the Press Office then reported that the papal entourage will include Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, who was born in Marrakech but has French origins and was ordained a priest for the diocese of Ajaccio.

Bruni also explained that, at the moment, there are no plans for the Pope to visit, for example, charitable associations, events which are common on his international trips. There is also no “particular indication” of a strengthening of security “beyond ordinary precautions”.