Pope Francis to Make Historic Visit to Corsica on December 15

VATICAN CITY, November 21, 2024 – Pope Francis will visit the French island of Corsica on December 15, marking the first-ever papal trip to the Mediterranean island. The visit to the capital city of Ajaccio will be a brief but significant one, with the pope expected to speak at a conference focused on popular religiosity across the Mediterranean region.

This trip will be Pope Francis’ 47th foreign journey since becoming pope in 2013. Corsica, home to approximately 356,000 residents, has a Catholic population of about 81.5%, according to Vatican estimates. The island, known for its rugged landscapes and as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, is one of France’s poorest regions, with around 20% of its population living below the poverty line.

The Vatican has not officially confirmed the details of the visit, but it has been in preparation for several weeks. Pope Francis has made two previous trips to France—one in 2014 to Strasbourg and another in 2023 to Marseilles—but has never made a full state visit to the country.

While French President Emmanuel Macron invited Pope Francis to Paris for the December 8 reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, the pope will be in Rome that day to lead a ceremony for the installation of new Catholic cardinals.

Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo, a Spanish-born cleric who has led the Catholic Church in Corsica since 2021, was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023.

The visit comes as part of the pope’s continued outreach to Mediterranean countries, having previously traveled to Malta, Greece, and Italy’s Lampedusa.