(15 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ajaccio, Corsica - 15 December 2025
1. Pope Francis outside the Palais des Congrès (Palazzu d’i Cungressi), a convention centre where he addressed more than 400 participants at the Conference on Popular Religiosity in the Mediterranean, organized by Cardinal Bustillo
2. Pope Francis waving to the crowd, blessing a child
3. Pope Francis leaving on Popemobile, waving to crowd
STORYLINE:
Pope Francis greeted crowds as he left a conference on Popular Religiosity in the Mediterranean, which he addressed on Sunday during a one-day visit to the French island of Corsica.
The pope’s remarks included reflections on local religious traditions, especially strongly held in Corsica, including the cult of the Virgin Mary, known locally as the Madunnuccia.
The conference was organized by the bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo
Pope Francis's Corsica visit comes two days before his 88th birthday.
It puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, highlighting local traditions of popular piety on the one hand and migrant deaths and wars on the other.
The visit to Corsica’s capital Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon, will be one of the briefest of his papacy beyond Italy’s borders, just about nine hours on the ground, including a 40-minute visit with French President Emmanuel Macron.
It is the first papal visit to the island, which Genoa ceded to France in 1768 and is located closer to the Italian mainland than France.
Corsica stands out from the rest of secularized France as a particularly devout region, with 92 confraternities, or lay associations dedicated to works of charity or piety, with over 4,000 members.
After the conference address, the Pope will travel to the 17th-century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta to meet with clergy, stopping along the way at the statue of the Madunnuccia.
Francis will celebrate Mass at the Place d’Austerlitz park, where it is said Napoleon played as a child. Around 7,000 faithful are expected.
He will meet privately with Macron at the airport before departing for the 50-minute flight back to Rome.
The pontiff pointedly did not make the trip to Paris earlier this month for the pomp surrounding the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral following the devastating 2019 fire.
The visit to Corsica seems far more suited to Francis’ priorities than a grand cathedral reopening, emphasizing the “church of the peripheries.”
It is Francis’ third trip to France, each time avoiding Paris and the protocols that a state visit entails.
He visited the port of Marseille in 2023, on an overnight visit to participate in an annual summit of Mediterranean bishops, and went to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and Council of Europe.
Corsica is home to more than 340,000 people and has been part of France since 1768.
But the island has also seen pro-independence violence and has an influential nationalist movement, and last year Macron proposed granting it limited autonomy.
===========================================================
Clients are reminded to adhere to all listed restrictions and to check the terms of their licence agreements. For further assistance, please contact the AP Archive on: Tel +44(0)2074827482 Email: info@aparchive.com.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
