Pope Francis to visit Trieste for Italian Catholic Social Week

By Adriana Masotti

Bishop Enrico Trevisi announced several details of Pope Francis’ scheduled visit to the northern Italian city on July 7, as he presented the 50th Italian Catholic Social Week on Friday.

The event is set for July 3-7, 2024, and takes place under the title: "At the heart of democracy: Participation between history and future."

Pope Francis in Trieste on July 7

As reported by the Bishop of Trieste, Pope Francis will arrive by helicopter at the Generali Convention Center in Trieste, located at the Old Port, at around 8:00 AM.

He will be welcomed by civil and religious authorities, including the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi.

His welcome will be followed by a meeting with participants in the Catholic Social Week and then with representatives of other Christian Churches and religions present in the city and from academia, as well as with a group of migrants and people with disabilities.

The Pope will then board a car and head to Unity Square for the celebration of Mass and the recitation of the Angelus. He will depart from Trieste to return to the Vatican at around 12:30 PM.

President Mattarella to open event

The annual congress of Catholics in Italy will thus conclude with the Pope’s visit, and will have opened with the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, on July 3.

The central theme of the Week, which expects over a thousand delegates, seeks to promote the participation of citizens in democratic life. It will include the presentation of "good practices,” as well as discussions and workshops in various parts of the city.

According to the general secretary of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Giuseppe Baturi, who had announced the Pope's visit in January, the presence of Pope Francis and President Mattarella "highlights the importance that the Trieste event has for the life of the entire country."

It aims to "offer the contribution of Catholics to respond to the challenges that Italy, Europe, and the world are called to face."

Migration flow from the Balkans

"We cannot talk about participation, democracy, the common good, and then forget about vulnerable people," said Bishop Trevisi on Friday morning at the press conference. "The maturity of a democracy also depends on how vulnerable people are welcomed and integrated."

Referring to his local reality, the Bishop explained that Trieste is on the Balkan route and that immigration "is a theme we know to be challenging and complex and the Pope calls us to be capable of worthy reception."

He mentioned a dilapidated structure lacking sanitary facilities, water, and electricity, located near the city's railway station where many migrants have long found refuge.

Bishop Trevisi said the building represents "an unworthy situation" for which, he said, "we hope for a resolution."