Although it’s still not official, the Vatican’s Secretary of State confirmed today that Pope Francis will most likely visit Washington D.C. and New York during his visit to the United States.
“I think the Pope will go to United Nations, everybody is speaking about that… but no official announcement has been delivered,” Cardinal Parolin told CNA Jan. 6.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, spoke to American journalists at the end of the dedication ceremony for a new wing of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He added that “of course” a papal visit to the nation’s capital city of Washington, D.C. is possibly in the agenda, but he stressed that “no official confirmation has been made.”
Pope Francis announced his trip to the United States Nov. 17 in an address to members of the “Humanum Conference.” During his visit, the pontiff will participate in the Sept. 22-27 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
Although Cardinal Parolin hesitated to make an official confirmation, there has been speculation that the Roman Pontiff will make stops in both Washington D.C. and the headquarters of the United Nations in New York while he is in the U.S.
The Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N. in New York, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, strongly hinted last fall that a visit to the United Nations would be added to his stop in Philadelphia. Details of the Pope’s participation in the Philadelphia meeting of families will likely be set either this spring or summer, and then made public together with the overall schedule of the papal voyage to the United States.
