Pope Francis arrived in Luxembourg today for a short visit to a of the smallest European countries, before his visit to Belgium at the weekend, where he will pay attention to the needs of refugees and meet with a group of victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The Holy Father's tour of Luxembourg and Belgium, which will end on Sunday, is a rare European visit by Francis, who usually prefers to visit places where a pope has never set foot or countries where Catholics are a minority. The visit comes less than two weeks after the Holy Father returned from a 12-day tour of four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
87-year-old Francis arrived at the international airport "Findel" in Luxembourg with a charter flight of "ITA Airways", on board of which were also the accompanying reporters. The Pope will spend the day in the country, and in the evening he will head to the Belgian capital, Brussels. This will be the first visit to Belgium by the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the last 30 years.
Belgium's ambassador to the Vatican, Patrick Renaud, said Francis is expected to meet privately with a group of 15 victims of sexual assault in the Belgian Catholic Church.
Later today, the Pope will hold personal meetings with Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Prime Minister Luc Frieden, after which he will deliver a speech to the country's political authorities. He will also meet with local Catholics at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. in the capital of Luxembourg.
During the flight from Rome this morning, Francis greeted journalists traveling with him on board, but did not go around the plane to meet them individually, as he usually does, Reuters noted.
The pope, who has difficulty walking due to knee and back pain, said he did not feel ready to go to the back of the plane.
Luxembourg, with an area of 2,586 square km, has about 271,000 Catholics out of a total population of 654,000, according to Vatican figures.