Pope Francis may visit India this year
Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Thursday, 31 March 2016 AT 10:35 PM IST
PUNE: There are high chances that Pope Francis may visit India this year as the Catholic Bishops Conference of India has formally urged the Indian government to invite the pontiff on a state visit. If Pope Francis accepts India’s invitation, it will be the fourth papal visit to the country.
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, President of the CBCI, has recently sent an invitation to the Pope to visit India. As per the procedure, the CBCI has also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to formally in-vite the pontiff to India.
Head of the Roman Catholic Church is also the head of the Vatican City state and therefore as per the protocol, needs a formal invitation by both the Indian government and the Indian Catholic Church to visit the country.
The Church leadership in the country would be happy if the Pope attends the proposed canonisation ceremony of Mother Teresa in Kolkata. Pope Francis has already announced that the Nobel laureate would be formally declared a saint on September 3, on the eve of her death anniversary. The visit of the global head of the Catholic community in India is expected to boost the image of the BJP government, which is often accused of being anti-minorities.
Pope Paul VI was the first Pope to visit India to attend the international Eucharistic Congress held in Mumbai in 1964. Pope John Paul II was on a 10-day India visit in 1986 and again on a three-day visit to New Delhi in November 1999. Incidentally, Pakistan had also last month sent a formal invitation to Pope Francis to visit Pakistan. Pope John Paul II had visited Pakistan in 1981.
