trips by pope francis

Advertisement

Supported by

Pope's Schedule for Apostolic Journey to Asia and Oceania

By Francesca Merlo

Four countries in less than two weeks: September will be a busy month for Pope Francis, and for the faithful of the four countries preparing to welcome him as he visits them on his 45th Apostolic Journey abroad: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore.

Departing from Rome on 2 September, Pope Francis will first make his way to Indonsesia, landing in the capital, Jakarta. Then, on 6 September, he will travel to Port Moresby to greet the faithful of the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, where he will remain until 9 September. From there he will fly to Dili, the capital city of Timore Leste. Then, from Dili, Pope Francis will travel to Singapore for the final leg of his journey, from 11 to 13 of September, on which day he will return home, back to Rome. 

Below is a full schedule of the Holy Father's journey:

Thank you for reading our article. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to our daily newsletter. Just click here

More upcoming events:

The Pope's Agenda

Listen to our podcasts

Subscribe to our newsletters

To get the latest news

Papal audiences

Daily readings

Saint of the day

Pope Francis will head to Asia and Oceania in September for his longest foreign trip yet

The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore from Sept. 2 to 13.

The news came in a statement from Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See’s press office, who said the pope “will undertake an Apostolic Journey” to these four countries at “the invitation of the respective Heads of State and Church Authorities.”

It will be Francis’ 45th foreign trip since becoming pope on March 13, 2013, and the longest he has undertaken to date—a total of 12 days. He has already visited 61 countries.

This would be a demanding trip, even for a younger man. Francis turned 87 in December and has had mobility issues in recent years, but he is determined to travel.

Mr. Bruni only gave a basic outline of the papal journey and said a more detailed program would be provided later.

Pope Francis will visit Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia with a population of around 11 million people, Sept. 3 to 6. Indonesia is a country of almost 280 million people with the largest Muslim population in the world. There are more than eight million Catholics in the country. He will be the third pope to visit the country. Paul VI went there in 1970; John Paul II went there in 1989 and also visited Dili in Timor-Leste, then under Indonesian occupation.

From Jakarta, he will travel to Papua New Guinea, a country in Oceania with a population of 10.5 million people, 32 percent of whom are Catholic. He will stay there from Sept. 6 to 9 and visit two cities: Port Moresby, the capital, and Vanimo, a city in the north-westernmost part of Papua New Guinea on a peninsula close to the Indonesian border. He will be the second pope to visit Papua New Guinea after John Paul II, who traveled there in 1984.

He will fly from there to Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, from Sept. 9 to 11. Timor-Leste is the most Catholic country in Asia—97 percent of its 1.4 million population is Catholic, and the people there have long wanted Francis to visit. He will be the first pope to travel to the country since it gained independence in 2002.

He will conclude this long journey with a visit to Singapore, an island country and city-state in southeast Asia, from Sept. 11 to 13. Singapore has a population of six million people, of whom around 395,000 are Catholic, about 3 percent of the population. He will be the second pope to visit there; John Paul II visited in 1986.

Francis has looked especially to Asia since the beginning of his pontificate. Following in the footsteps of the first Jesuits, he identified the continent, where two-thirds of humanity lives, as a priority for evangelization, a part of the world that could offer a new springtime to the church. He has already made five journeys to Asia. The countries he has visited to date include South Korea (2014); Sri Lanka and the Philippines (2015); Myanmar and Bangladesh (2017); Thailand and Japan (2019); Kazakhstan (2022); and Mongolia (2023).

Vietnam is not listed among the countries that Francis will visit on this trip to Asia and Oceania, though he has received an invitation from the president of the country and from its bishops’ conference, but it is known that Francis wants to go there, too, and some sources think he could do so in 2025.

Gerard O’Connell is America ’s Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History . He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.

Most popular

Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more.

The latest from america

Pope Francis starts his longest trip yet as Catholic Church pivots to Asia

H e is 87 years old and in recent years has battled health difficulties and begun using a wheelchair. But Pope Francis is currently on the longest trip of his pontificate.

On Tuesday, he landed in Indonesia kicking off a marathon 12-day visit of four countries in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific which also includes Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

It is one of the longest foreign trips any pope has embarked on and marks the furthest geographical distance (32,814 kilometers or about 20,000 miles ) that Francis has traveled since his 2013 election. And on arrival in Jakarta, Pope Francis commented that the more than 13 hour flight over was the longest he has yet done.

The landmark visit will allow this pope to highlight key themes of his pontificate, including inter-religious dialogue and protection of the environment.

The trip also underscores a significant shift taking place inside the Catholic Church: its tilt to Asia.

During his pontificate, Francis’ 44 previous foreign visits have included South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh. He has also appointed cardinals from the Philippines (Luis Antonio Tagle) and South Korea (Lazarus You Heung-sik) to senior positions in the church’s central administration.

The Catholic Church is no longer a Eurocentric or western institution but one where churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America have a growing voice. Francis, who as a young man wanted to be a missionary in Japan, has spoken favorably about male and female church leaders coming from countries outside of Europe.

“Asia has always been among Francis’ priorities,” Fr. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official and close adviser to the pope, told CNN.

Catholics in Asia are often in the minority, although they frequently punch above their weight when it comes to running schools and charitable works.

“The pope is interested not so much in the number of Catholics as the vibrancy,”said Spadaro, who will be travelling with Francis. In many Asian countries, the Jesuit priest explained, the church seeks to act as a “leaven”in trying to serve the “common good,” while Asia “represents the future at this time in the world”.

Interfaith declaration

Often a minority, the churches in Asia are focused on dialogue with other religions, something that will be a central theme of the trip.

While in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim majority country, the pope will take part in a meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, the largest in Southeast Asia. Afterwards, Francis will sign an interfaith declaration with the grand imam of Indonesia and is also expected to visit an underpass linking the mosque and the Catholic cathedral next door known as the “tunnel of friendship.”

“Indonesia and Singapore are countries where the need to negotiate a harmonious co-existence with other religions and with the wider community is an ongoing concern,” Christina Kheng, a Catholic theologian from Singapore who teaches at the East Asian Pastoral Institute, told CNN. “What strands out is the dialogue of daily life that Catholics have with people of all faiths.”

“The pulse of the churches here is quite different from say, those in Europe or US where issues like polarization, secularization and abuse have dominated the headlines,” she added.

Spadaro said the “pope wants to give a signal about dialogue with Islam,” and points out that in East Timor, the government has adopted  a landmark human fraternity document  — signed by Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb –  as a national text .

East Timor is unusual for Asia as 97% the population identifies as Catholic, the highest proportion outside of the Vatican City State.

Michel Chambon, who works at the National University of Singapore and is an expert on Asian Catholicism, said the pope’s visit will help build relations and mutual understanding with these countries.

“The key thing is that the Vatican is not a European state, it is much more than that,” he said.

A giant in the background

Meanwhile, the Vatican’s relationship with China, an officially atheist state where religious practice is heavily curtailed by the government, will be in the background to this visit with Francis pushing ahead with trying to  rebuild diplomatic relations with Beijing .

Catholicism is one of five state-recognized faiths in China. But, state-sanctioned Catholic churches were, for decades, run by bishops appointed by Beijing, not the Holy See, until the two sides reached an agreement in 2018. Details of the accord have never been made public and many within China’s underground congregations who have remained loyal to Rome and long faced persecution fear being abandoned.

Although the Holy See-China agreement has faced criticism, the Vatican says the deal is  already paying off  and hopes to open a permanent office in China. The pope has repeatedly said he would like to visit the country.

Supporters of the patient diplomacy strategy point to the Holy See’s improved relationship with another Communist-governed country: Vietnam. After years of talks, the pope was able to appoint the first resident ambassador  in Hanoi at the end of last year.

Francis’ trip will also see him in a part of the world at risk of rising sea levels and natural disasters, with Papua New Guinea a country on the front line of the climate crisis. During his pontificate, the pope has insisted that the protection of the planet is a pressing moral issue, and his trip to the pacific is a chance once again to urge world leaders to take stronger action.

Making this lengthy trip now, after more than 11 years as pope, sends a message to those, including at senior levels in the church, hoping that this pontificate is running out of steam. Spadaro says it underlines the “liveliness of the pontificate at this moment.”

Francis will travel, as normal, with a doctor and two nurses. There are risks with making such a long and gruelling visit at his age. But this is a pope willing to take risks and pull off surprises. And he is determined to make one of the most ambitious trips of his pontificate.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Apostolic Journeys outside Italy - 2023

Apostolic journey of his holiness pope francis to dubai on the occasion of the conference of the parties to the united nations framework convention on climate change (cop28) (1-3 december 2023), [ arabic  -  english  -  french  -  german  -  italian  -  polish  -  portuguese  -  spanish ], apostolic journey of his holiness pope francis to marseille for the conclusion of the “rencontres méditerranéennes” (22-23 september 2023), apostolic journey of his holiness pope francis to mongolia (31 august - 4 september 2023), apostolic journey of his holiness pope francis to portugal on the occasion of the xxxvii world youth day ( 2-6 august 2023), apostolic journey of his holiness pope francis to hungary (28 - 30 april 2023), apostolic journey of his holiness pope francis to the democratic republic of congo and south sudan (ecumenical peace pilgrimage to the south sudan) (31 january - 5 february 2023), [ english  -  french  -  german  -  italian  -  polish  -  portuguese  -  spanish ].

• Apostolic Constitutions
• Apostolic Exhortations
• Apostolic Letters
• Encyclicals
• Urbi et Orbi
• World Communications Days
• World Day for Consecrated Life
• World Food Day
• Messages for Lent
• World Day of Migrants and Refugees
• World Mission Day
• World Day of Peace
• World Day of the Poor
• World Day of the Sick
• World Day of Prayer for Vocations
• World Youth Day
• World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
• World Children's Day
• World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
• Motu Proprio
• Apostolic Voyages outside Italy
• Apostolic Voyages to Italy
• Apostolic Journeys to Italy
• Apostolic Journeys outside Italy
• Apostolic Journey to Italy

• Asia - Pacific
• Middle East - Africa
• Apologetics
• Benedict XVI
• Catholic Links
• Church Fathers
• Life & Family
• Liturgical Calendar
• Pope Francis
• CNA Newsletter
• Editors Service About Us Advertise Privacy

Vatican releases schedule for Pope Francis’ two-week trip to Asia and Oceania

By Courtney Mares

Vatican City, Jul 5, 2024 / 11:46 am

Pope Francis will travel more than 20,000 miles over the course of seven flights during his ambitious 12-day trip to four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania this September.

At the age of 87, the Holy Father is set to take on his most ambitious international trip yet, which will be the longest of his 11-year pontificate.

The Vatican published Friday the full schedule for the pope’s trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore from Sept. 2 to 13.

The first stop on his Southeast Asia tour is Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world, where he will preside over an interfaith meeting in Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque.

After a 13-hour flight and day of rest in the Indonesian capital, Francis will meet with the country’s President Joko Widodo on Sept. 4 and deliver a speech to political leaders at the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace. 

The pope will also visit Jakarta’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption to meet with bishops, priests, religious sisters, and seminarians after meeting privately with local Jesuits. 

More than 29 million Christians live in Indonesia, 7 million of whom are Catholic, while Indonesia’s 229 million Muslims make up more than 12% of the global Muslim population. Nearly all of Indonesia’s Muslims are Sunni.

The pope’s second full day in Jakarta begins with an interreligious meeting in the Istiqlal Mosque, the ninth-largest mosque in the world. 

Pope Francis will conclude his time in Indonesia with a Mass on the evening of Sept. 5 in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 77,000, after meeting with beneficiaries from local charitable organizations.

More in Vatican

Vatican secretary of state says Ukraine’s military advances into Russia are ‘worrying’

On Sept. 6, he will travel nearly 3,000 miles to Papua New Guinea’s sprawling capital of Port Moresby.

Pope Francis will visit local ministries that care for street children and persons with disabilities on his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7, which also includes a speech to the local political authorities and an address to the local clergy at the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians.

The following day, the pope will meet with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape before presiding over Sunday Mass in Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium.

He will then fly to Vanimo, a city in the northwesternmost province of Papua New Guinea, where he will greet local missionaries and address local Catholics in front of the Holy Cross Cathedral before flying back to the capital city Sunday night.

Pope Francis will travel on Sept. 9 to the small country of East Timor, which has a population that is more than 97% Catholic. 

In Dili, the country’s capital, Pope Francis will visit children with disabilities, meet local clergy and religious in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, give a speech at the Presidential Palace, and preside over Mass in the Esplanade of Taci Tolu over the course of two days.

The pope’s final stop before returning to Rome will be the island of Singapore, the country with the highest GDP per capita in Asia and the second-highest population density of any country in the world.

(Story continues below)

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

Pope Francis will be welcomed to Singapore’s world-renowned Changi International Airport on Sept. 11. He will meet President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sept. 12 before presiding over Mass in Singapore’s SportsHub National Stadium, the third stadium Mass of the trip. 

On his last day in Asia, the pope will preside over an interreligious meeting with young people in Singapore’s Catholic Junior College and visit a group of elderly people. He will make the 6,000-mile journey back to Italy on a chartered Singapore Airlines flight scheduled to land in Rome at 6:25 p.m. on Sept. 13.

The nearly two-week venture will be the pope’s first international trip in 2024. Francis has slowed down his travel schedule in recent months as health and mobility issues, from a knee injury to recurring bronchitis, have forced him to cancel some public appearances, including his last planned foreign visit to Dubai. 

Pope Francis is also scheduled to make a four-day trip to Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of September.

• Catholic News ,
• Pope Francis ,

Our mission is the truth. Join us!

Your monthly donation will help our team continue reporting the truth, with fairness, integrity, and fidelity to Jesus Christ and his Church.

You may also like

Pope Francis says he wants to travel to Oceania and Africa

He confirmed that he would visit Greece and Cyprus in December.

Pope Francis to travel to Luxembourg and Belgium in September

The pope will make a one-day stopover in Luxembourg on Sept. 26 before visiting the Catholic universities of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve Sept. 26–29.

Pope Francis to travel to Indonesia, Singapore, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea

Pope Francis will travel to the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore, the Vatican announced Friday.

Pope arrives in Papua New Guinea for 2nd leg of Southeast Asia, Oceania trip

Pope Francis is helped down a ramp at Jackson's International Airport in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on Friday. Credit: AP / Mark Baker

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — Pope Francis arrived in Papua New Guinea on Friday for the second leg of his four-nation trip through Southeast Asia and Oceania, becoming the second pope to visit the poor, strategically important South Pacific nation.

A cannon salute and marching band greeted the 87-year-old pope on the tarmac of the Port Moresby airport as he arrived after a six-hour flight from Jakarta, Indonesia. During the brief welcome ceremony, the pope momentarily lost his balance while maneuvering from his wheelchair to a chair, but his security guards steadied him.

While he was traveling, Indonesian police revealed they had detained seven people from the Java and Sumatra regions on suspicion of making threats on social media of staging suicide bombings during papal events and disrupting the pope’s security protocol.

The spokesperson for the Indonesian police’s elite counterterrorism squad, Aswin Siregar, described the threats as primarily a publicity-seeking exercise, but added that the investigation was continuing.

Francis' packed three-day Indonesia visit culminated with a jubilant Mass on Thursday afternoon before a crowd of 100,000 that filled two sports stadiums and overflowed into a parking lot.

Get the latest breaking news as it happens.

By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy .

“Don’t tire of dreaming and of building a civilization of peace,” Francis urged them in an ad-libbed homily. “Be builders of hope. Be builders of peace.”

The Vatican had originally expected the Mass would draw some 60,000 people, and Indonesian authorities had predicted 80,000. But the Vatican spokesman quoted local organizers as saying more than 100,000 attended.

"I feel very lucky compared to other people who can’t come here or even had the intention to come here," said Vienna Frances Florensius Basol, who came with her husband and a group of 40 people from Sabah, Malaysia, but couldn't get into the stadium.

“Even though we are outside with other Indonesians, seeing the screen, I think I am lucky enough,” she said from a parking lot where a giant TV screen was erected for anyone who didn't have tickets for the service.

While in Indonesia, Francis sought to encourage the country’s 8.9 million Catholics, who make up just 3% of the population of 275 million, while also seeking to boost interfaith ties with the country boasting the world’s largest Muslim population.

In the highlight of the visit, Francis and the grand imam of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, Southeast Asia’s largest, signed a joint declaration pledging to work to end religiously inspired violence and protect the environment.

In Papua New Guinea, Francis’ agenda is aligned with more of his social justice priorities. He will lay them out during his first full day Saturday, when he meets with the governor general before addressing government authorities and diplomats. Francis will also meet with children cared for by two charity services and then address the country's bishops, priests and religious sisters at a Marian sanctuary.

The strategically important Commonwealth nation is home to more than 10 million people, most of whom are subsistence farmers.

John Lavu, the choir conductor at St. Charles Luwanga parish in the capital, Port Moresby, said the visit would help him grow stronger in his Catholic faith.

"I have lived this faith all my life, but the coming of the Holy Father, the head of the church, to Papua New Guinea and to be a witness of his coming to us is going to be very important for me in my life as a Catholic,” he said on the eve of Francis' arrival.

Francis will be traveling to remote Vanimo to check in on some Catholic missionaries from his native Argentina who are trying to spread the Catholic faith to a largely tribal people who also practice pagan and Indigenous traditions.

The country, the South Pacific’s most populous after Australia, has more than 800 Indigenous languages and has been riven by tribal conflicts over land for centuries, with conflicts becoming more and more lethal in recent decades.

History's first Latin American pope will probably refer to the need to find harmony among tribal groups while visiting, the Vatican said. Another possible theme is the country’s fragile ecosystem, its rich natural resources at risk of exploitation and the threat posed by climate change.

The Papua New Guinean government has blamed extraordinary rainfall for a massive landslide in May that buried a village in Enga province. The government said more than 2,000 people were killed, while the United Nations estimated the death toll at 670.

Francis becomes only the second pope to visit Papua New Guinea, after St. John Paul II touched down in 1984 and again in 1995 during his lengthy, globe-trotting voyages. Then, John Paul paid tribute to the Catholic missionaries who had already been trying for a century to bring the faith to the country.

Papua New Guinea, administered by nearby Australia until independence in 1975, is the second leg of Francis’ 11-day trip. In the longest and farthest voyage of his papacy, Francis will also visit East Timor and Singapore before returning to the Vatican on Sept. 13. 

'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.

Get more on these and other NewsdayTV stories

Most Popular

Latest videos.

Stay logged in.

The Newsday app makes it easier to access content without having to log in.

Unlimited Digital Access Only 25¢ for 5 months

Larisa Epatko Larisa Epatko

Leave your feedback

• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/everything-know-pope-francis-visit-u-s

Everything we know about Pope Francis’ trip to the U.S.

In his first trip to the United States in September, Pope Francis will make stops in Washington, D.C., and New York before celebrating the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

The Vatican released his schedule for Sept. 22-27, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington and one of his hosts, expanded upon it a little more for reporters on Tuesday.

The pope is coming as a “pastor of souls, whose focus is not political,” said Wuerl. “For our country today, with the concerns that we have and the tensions we sometimes face, to have someone of his stature say, ‘remember folks, you are brothers and sisters; remember folks, you are all part of the same family of God,’ I think that’s a message we’re all eager to hear.”

Yes, he will ride the “popemobile” during his visit to Washington, offering the public one of several chances to see him, Wuerl confirmed.

Following a two-day visit to Cuba, where he will celebrate Mass in Havana and meet with Cuban President Raul Castro, Pope Francis will arrive at Andrews Air Force Base at about 4 p.m. EDT. He has no events scheduled.

Pope Francis goes to the White House for a 9:15 a.m. EDT meeting with President Barack Obama, who visited him in Rome in March 2014.

Following the meeting, the pope will travel in the popemobile around the Ellipse and past part of the National Mall at about 11 a.m. EDT. The public may line the route, no tickets needed. Security checkpoints open at 4 a.m. and close at 10 a.m. See more information , including a list of restricted items.

At 11:30 a.m. EDT, the pontiff meets with U.S. bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.

At 4:15 p.m. EDT, he celebrates Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The pope will canonize Junipero Serra, Spanish-born Franciscan friar who started nine Spanish missions in California in the 1700s. Those invited include religious leaders, Catholic charities, and representatives of California with ties to Serra. He will say the Mass in Spanish.

How will the general public get tickets? The Mass on the grounds of the Basilica and adjacent Catholic University will accommodate about 25,000 seats and another 20,000 standing room tickets. Once the archdiocese determines how many tickets are available, after security measures are considered, people will be able to get tickets through their parishes, Wuerl said.

Those without tickets can watch the Mass on large television screens, or Jumbotrons, placed around the city, he added.

Pope Francis speaks at a joint meeting of Congress — the first time a pope has ever addressed the House and Senate — at 10 a.m. EDT. His speech will be shown on Jumbotrons on the National Mall. He is expected to deliver this speech in English.

At 11:15 a.m. EDT, Pope Francis visits St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, which is the headquarters of the service organization Catholic Charities of Washington.

While there, he will visit with the homeless and get a chance to see one of the programs, St. Maria’s meal van, in action, said Wuerl.

In the afternoon, the pope flies to New York and participate in Evening Vespers or prayers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

On Friday, Pope Francis addresses the United Nations General Assembly about environmental sustainability at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

At 11:30 a.m. EDT, he holds a multi-religious service at the 9/11 memorial site in New York City.

The pontiff then pays a visit to Our Lady Queen of Angels school in the East Harlem community at 4 p.m. EDT.

At 6 p.m. EDT, he celebrates Mass in Madison Square Garden.

Pope Francis travels to Philadelphia at 8:40 a.m. EDT to participate in the World Meeting of Families, a gathering that takes place every three years in a different international city.

He celebrates Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

The pope discusses religious freedom with Hispanics and other immigrants at Independence Mall at about 4:45 p.m. EDT.

He visits the Festival of Families along Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 7:30 p.m. EDT. His parade route, before his evening appearance at the festival, takes him from Eakins Oval down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, around City Hall and back to the starting point. A second, shorter parade along the same route takes place on Sept. 27 before the open-air Mass.

Pope Francis meets with bishops at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in suburban Philadelphia at 9:15 a.m. EDT.

He plans to visit inmates at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility at 11 a.m. EDT.

The pope later goes back to Benjamin Franklin Parkway to celebrate an open-air Mass at 4 p.m. EDT, and then greets organizers of the World Meeting of Families at 7 p.m. EDT before flying back to Rome that night.

Larisa Epatko produced multimedia web features and broadcast reports with a focus on foreign affairs for the PBS NewsHour. She has reported in places such as Jordan , Pakistan , Iraq , Haiti , Sudan , Western Sahara , Guantanamo Bay , China , Vietnam , South Korea , Turkey , Germany and Ireland .

Support Provided By: Learn more

Educate your inbox

Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.

Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.