Mags GarganPope Francis will address the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on November.
The Parliament’s president, Martin Schultz, made the announcement last week and the Vatican immediately confirmed it. According to Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, Pope Francis will travel to Strasbourg and back to Rome the same day, and his brief trip should not be considered a pastoral visit to France.
In visiting the parliament, the Pope will be accepting an invitation by Schultz during a visit to the Vatican last October. “The decision to come to Strasbourg before visiting any individual EU member state as such gives a strong signal that the Pope supports and encourages the pursuit of European integration and unity,” said a statement by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community.
“We hope that the Holy Father will encourage European parliamentarians in their work and that he will indicate how the foundational values of the Union – inspired to a large degree by the Christian faith – may shape the Europe of tomorrow.”