Pope Francis to visit Vilnius

Pope Francis will visit Vilnius next autumn, the Lithuanian President’s spokesperson Daiva Ulbinaite said. The Vatican will announce the exact date and status of the visit soon, Delfi reports.

It will be the Pope’s second visit to Lithuania. Pope John Paul II visited this country in 1993.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka said many times that he would like to welcome the pontiff in Belarus. The Belarusian President even suggested organizing ‘a historic meeting’ of the pontiff with Moscow patriarchy in Belarus (he said so in September 2017 last time). Will Pope Francis visit Belarus in the autumn of 2018? It is possible. The pontiff is also planning to visit Tallinn, Estonian Mass media report. It means that the Pope may visit other countries besides Lithuania. The pontiff may visit Belarus ‘in the near future’, apostolic nuncio Gábor Pintér noted in October 2017.