Panaji: Pope Francis announcement of “almost certainly” visiting India and Bangladesh in 2017 appears to be only a possibility at the moment, but some in the Goa Church reacted to the news with some surprise. “At this stage, it is just a possibility. We are also surprised about the pope’s statement,” a Goa Church leader said on Tuesday.
Earlier in April, a delegation led by president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, had requested PM Narendra Modi to invite Pope Francis to India.
The delegation had called on Modi in Delhi with a request to head the Indian delegation to attend the canonization of Mother Teresa on September 4, 2016.
CBCI had also formally invited Pope Francis to visit India and Cardinal Cleemis had recently confirmed that their letter had been received in Rome.
The last Papal visit to Goa — of Pope John Paul II in February 1986 – is now only a distant, but nostalgic memory, for many Catholics and others in the state. The charismatic Pope had celebrated a public mass at the Campal ground in Panaji. He had also stayed at the Bishop’s House during his visit to Goa.
Any hopes of a visit to Goa being scheduled on Pope Francis’ India and Bangladesh itinerary is remote at this moment. “It is the President of India that has to invite him. Goa Church has no communication about it,” the Church leader said.
(Source: The Times of India)