Pope Leo confirms Fourth of July plans amid US go to hypothesis | EUROtoday

Pope Leo, the primary American chief of the worldwide Catholic Church, will make a major go to to Lampedusa, an Italian island referred to as a major entry level for migrants, on 4 July.

The Vatican introduced on Thursday that the journey, a part of a sequence of summer time engagements throughout Italy, will notably coincide with the 250th anniversary of US independence.

Lampedusa, located within the Mediterranean between Tunisia, Malta, and Sicily, is a important vacation spot on one of many world’s deadliest migration routes.

Countless folks arrive there after perilous journeys throughout the Mediterranean, typically in easy fishing boats or makeshift dinghies from North Africa.

The Chicago-born pontiff has beforehand known as for “deep reflection” on the remedy of migrants within the US beneath President Donald Trump’s administration.

This go to follows the Vatican’s refutation of studies that Pope Leo would possibly journey to the US for the independence celebrations, with the press workplace stating: “The pope will not go to the United States in 2026.”

The island was visited by the late Pope Francis in 2013 on his first go to as pope outdoors Rome.

In a video message despatched to the island in September, Leo had talked about a need to go to and had thanked native organizations who provide help to arriving migrants.

He stated volunteers on the island “have shown … the smile and the attention of a human face to people who have survived in a desperate journey of hope.”

The Vatican launched Leo’s agenda for day journeys to a half-dozen Italian cities over the following six months. The Vatican has not often launched such plans collectively and to this point prematurely, however phrase of the visits was beginning to filter out.

The busy itinerary, which can take Leo up and down the Italian peninsula, is along with plans for some intense overseas journey in 2026.

There are plans beneath examine for a four-nation journey to Africa after Easter that might take Leo to Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Cameroon. Leo himself has stated he hopes to go to his beloved Peru, in addition to Argentina and Uruguay, journeys that would occur towards the tip of the yr.

The Vatican beforehand confirmed that one overseas journey not on the agenda this yr is to Leo’s native United States.

History’s first US-born pope was restricted in his skill to depart Rome throughout his first yr as pontiff due to the busy 2025 Holy Year agenda, which noticed hundreds of thousands of pilgrims coming to the Vatican for particular Masses and papal audiences.

Leo has begun a sequence of parish visits inside his Roman diocese every Sunday all through Lent, the interval main as much as Easter.

The travels start on 8 May with a go to to the Naples and the close by historical metropolis of Pompeii. He’ll return to the area later that month, on 23 May, to fulfill with the devoted of Acerra.

The space is called the “Land of Fires,” for the years of toxic-waste dumping by the native mafia that has led to elevated charges of most cancers and different illnesses for its residents.

Leo will go north to Pavia, close to Milan, on 20 June after which journey on 4 July to Lampedusa, an Italian island that’s nearer to Africa than the Italian mainland. Pope Francis had made Lampedusa his first journey outdoors Rome after his 2013 election to indicate solidarity with migrants who landed there after being smuggled from north Africa.

Francis famously celebrated Mass on the island on an altar manufactured from shipwrecked migrant boats and denounced the “globalisation of indifference” that greets migrants who risk their lives trying to reach Europe — a mantra that would come to define his papacy.

On 6 August, Leo will go to the Umbrian hilltop city of Assisi, which this yr is celebrating the 800th anniversary of the loss of life of its most well-known resident, St. Francis.

And later that month, 22 August, Leo will participate in an annual Italian political and non secular convention within the Adriatic seaside resort of Rimini.

Leo, who was born in Chicago and spent 20 years as a missionary in Peru, has stated he likes to journey. He spent a few years on the street when he served two, six-year phrases because the superior of his Augustinian spiritual order, which required him to go to Augustinian communities all over the world.