ASIA/PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Young pilgrims from Papua ask to pray with the Pope in Rome

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Madang (Agenzia Fides) - Fifteen Christian students of the Divine Word University in Madang will make a pilgrimage to Rome from June 14 to 21, for the Year of Faith and have asked to pray with Pope Francis, participating in the morning Mass, in the chapel of "Casa di Santa Marta" in Rome. "During the preparatory meetings - the chaplain Fr. Giorgio Licini PIME explains to Fides - the students said: we come from very far away and it is likely we will not return to Rome. Can we pray with Pope Francis?" Fr. George explained to the young people that it will not be easy to fulfill this desire, but the students, full of enthusiasm, "hope to be able to fullfill, one day, the dream of being close to the Pope and the heart of the Church."
"The purpose of the trip - says Fr. George to Fides - is spiritual in the context of the Year of Faith, but it is also educational, since Rome is the cradle of history, art, civilization".
Students (12 Catholic, one Lutheran, one Pentecostal who is a young University employee) are enrolled in the Faculties of Arts, Medicine, Social Sciences. They will visit the Vatican City, Rome, Assisi, and Neptune, to pray at the tomb of St. Maria Goretti, patroness of youth in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The prayer request with the Pope was sent to the Holy See through the channels of the Apostolic Nunciature. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/05/2013)


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