Father’s three-day visit to Kazakhstan has begun!

38th Apostolic Tour of Pope Francis abroad – 13-15 September.

Joey Kariveli, Vatican City

On Tuesday 13 (13/09/22), the 38th apostolic journey of Pope Francis abroad began on Tuesday 13 (13/09/22).

This journey is a pilgrimage of dialogue and peace, as the Pope himself described during his midday prayer last Sunday (9/11/22), asking for prayer support for his pastoral visit to Kazakhstan.

During this three-day visit, which will last until the 15th, the Pope’s presence will be only in Nur-Sultan (Astana), the capital of Kazakhstan. The motto of this pastoral visit is “Messengers of peace and unity”. The purpose of the Pope’s visit is to participate in the 7th World Conference of Leaders of World Religions and Traditional Religions which will be organized in Nur Sultan on the 14th and 15th.

From his residence in the Vatican, the “Domus Sancte Marthe” named after Santa Marta, at 6.30 Rome time, the Pope went by car to the “Leonardo da Vinci” international airport in Rome. From there, Dad took a flight to Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan. The plane carrying the Pope and his entourage took off 21 minutes late, at 7:36 am Rome time and 11:06 am Indian time. The Pope greeted the media workers who were with him on the airship at the start of the journey and expressed his gratitude for their help.

This pastoral visit of the Pope takes place in a country where Muslims are the majority and Catholics are very few. The official program of the first day of the Pope’s three-day pastoral visit is the meeting with the leaders of the States, representatives of civil society and diplomatic representatives.

On the second day, Wednesday, in the morning, the Pope will hold a silent prayer with religious leaders, participate in the opening of the VII Conference of Leaders of World Religions and Traditional Religions and will celebrate the Solemnity of Praise of the Holy Cross at the Expo Grounds in evening.

The Pope’s program on Thursday, the closing day, is the meeting with bishops, priests, deacons, priests and pastoral workers, the reading of the closing proclamation of the meeting of religious leaders and the closing meeting. The Pope will return to the Vatican later that evening.

25 percent of Kazakhstan’s 1.9 million inhabitants are Christians. Most of them are members of the Russian Orthodox Church. Catholics are only one percent. The inhabitants of Annadu belong to 18 officially recognized religious groups.

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