Vatican City, Jan 26, 2009 / 07:45 am
With less than two months before Pope Benedict XVI travels to Africa, the Vatican has published the itinerary for the March 17-23 visit.
On Tuesday, March 17, the Holy Father will depart from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 10 a.m. and will arrive at 4 p.m. in Yaounde, Cameroon where he will be greeted by authorities.
The next day, he will visit the president of Cameroon at the Palais de l'Unite in Yaounde before meeting with the country's bishops in the church of Christ-Roi in Tsinga. He will then celebrate Vespers with both the local clergy and with representatives of ecclesial movements and of other Christian confessions in the basilica of Marie Reine des Apotres.
In the apostolic nunciature in Yaounde early on Thursday, March 19, the Holy Father will meet with representatives of the Muslim community of Cameroon. Later that morning he is scheduled to celebrate Mass at Yaounde's Amadou Ahidjo stadium, to mark the publication of the "Instrumentum Laboris" of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops. In the afternoon, at 4:30 p.m., he will meet with the sick in the Cardinal Paul Emile Leger Centre and will pronounce an address before members of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.