Vatican City, Aug 21 (V7N) – Pope Leo XIV will travel to the tiny republic of San Marino on Saturday before attending a cultural and political event organised by the influential Catholic group Communion and Liberation at the Italian seaside resort of Rimini, according to a Vatican press release .
The pontiff is to spend the morning in the 60-square-kilometre enclave of 33,000 people in the Apennine Mountains, in what will be the latest in a series of brief pastoral visits not far from home this summer . The trip follows one made in March to another European statelet, the principality of Monaco .
In San Marino, the world's oldest republic, the Chicago-born pope will meet with local authorities and sign the Book of Distinguished Guests, before holding a prayer service in the local basilica, where he will venerate the relics of St Marinus . The visit also marks the centenary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Republic of San Marino .
The head of the Catholic Church will then head to Rimini for the annual gathering of Communion and Liberation, known as the "Rimini Meeting" . The prominent event, mixing religion, culture and politics, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every summer . Pope Leo will be the first pontiff to take part in the event since Pope John Paul II in 1982 .
Fellow speakers this year include Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and both of Italy's deputy prime ministers, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini .
Ahead of his address, the pope will visit an exhibition dedicated to St Augustine, the influential fifth-century Christian theologian who laid the foundations for the 13th-century Augustinian order to which Leo belongs . He will also meet people with disabilities and sick members of the faith at Rimini's cathedral before presiding over an open-air Mass at the city's port in the early evening .
end/wd/rh/
