Vatican City, Apr 7, 2016 / 05:04 am
Pope Francis will travel to the Greek island of Lesbos next Saturday, April 16, where he will meet with ecumenical leaders and refugees, the Vatican announced Thursday.
Director of the Holy See Press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, told journalists the invitation for the Pope to visit the island came from Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and Greek president Prokopis Pavlopoulos.
"Welcoming the invitation," said Fr. Lombardi, "Pope Francis will travel to Lesbos Saturday, April 16, 2016."
A Vatican statement released April 7 to journalists said the Pope, along with "His Holiness Bartholomew, and His Holiness Jerome II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, will meet with the refugees accommodated there."