Pope Francis to visit Kazakhstan in September | world and science

Pope FrancisFrance Press agency

Posted on 11/04/2022 20:33 | Updated on 04/11/2022 20:38

ROME – The presidency of Pope Francis, the largest country in Central Asia, announced on Monday that the pope will visit Kazakhstan in September, where he will attend a conference on interfaith dialogue.

The presidency said in a statement that the Pope confirmed in a video conference with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev the “official visit to Kazakhstan and his participation in the Seventh Conference of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions” scheduled for September 14 and 15.

The first edition of this conference, which seeks to promote interfaith dialogue, was held in 2003.

“There was a video exchange this morning and the Pope confirmed his intention to visit the country,” the Vatican press office confirmed.

Bordering Russia, Kazakhstan is diplomatically close to Russia, which is currently conducting a military offensive in Ukraine, and the Pope has spoken out against it several times.

Kazakhstan was rocked in January by violent protests that plunged the country into a political crisis unprecedented since its independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Francis, 85, visited Georgia and Azerbaijan in 2016, but he has never visited Central Asia since becoming pope in 2013.

The Pope, who has recently shown signs of physical fatigue, is scheduled to take several trips abroad in 2022. After Malta, in early April, Francis plans to visit Lebanon in June, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Canada in July.