By Verghese V Joseph –
Vatican: The Vatican today confirmed the visit of Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi at the Apostolic Palace on Saturday. The visit includes a 30-minute discussion between head of the Catholic Church Pope Francis and the visiting Indian Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with the Pope comes just before his two-day G-20 summit in Rome, ahead of the COP26 climate summit at Glasgow in Scotland.
The meeting assumes significance since it was only in January this year that the three Cardinals of the Catholic church — Oswald Gracias, George Alancherry and Baslios Cleemis – met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to invite Pope Francis to India.
The cardinals also told the PM that the Pope was keen to visit India. The last visit by a Pope to India was in 1999 when the late John II came to the country. That the Pope visited Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2017 and did not come to India, caused much heartburn in the community.
While the papal visit may not be on the cards as yet, Modi meeting the Pope will certainly inspire goodwill back in India.
Incidentally, in September last year, during his monthly ‘Mann ki baat’ address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid rich tributes to Sister Mariam Thresia, who was canonised Vatican by Pope Francis on October 13, following which the founder of Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Family was pronounced a saint.
The Prime Minister said that it was matter of pride for every India that with the canonisation, Saint Mariam Thresia had dedicated her life for the betterment of people and humanity and has set an example for the world.
In another incident in July this year, India permanently returned the holy relics of Georgian queen, 400 years after her murder at Shiraz in Iran in 1624. Portions of Saint Queen Ketevan’s relics were clandestinely taken by the St. Augustine Portuguese Catholic missionaries, eyewitnesses of her martyrdom, to Georgia where they were interred at the Alaverdi Monastery. The rest of her remains were said to have been buried at the Church of St. Augustine in Goa. After several expeditions to Goa in the 21st century to search for the remains, they were believed to be found in late 2013.
Addressing the nation through the ‘Mann Ki Baat’ July monthly radio programme, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared how Indian researchers in 2005 uncovered the relics of a 16th-century Georgian queen, Ketevan the Martyr, from the Saint Augustine Church in Goa. “India handed over the holy relic or icon of Saint Queen Ketevan to the Government of Georgia and the people there,” the Prime Minister said.
Update:
In the early hours of Friday, Modi embarked on the visit with his office tweeting a picture of him boarding a plane for Italy to participate in the G20 Rome Summit.
In his statement before leaving, he said the meeting will allow the G20 to take stock of the current global situation and exchange ideas on how the grouping can be an engine for strengthening economic resilience and building back inclusively and sustainably from the pandemic.
In his statement before leaving, he said the meeting will allow the G20 to take stock of the current global situation and exchange ideas on how the grouping can be an engine for strengthening economic resilience and building back inclusively and sustainably from the pandemic.
“During my visit to Italy, I will also visit the Vatican City, to call on His Holiness Pope Francis and meet Secretary of State, His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin,” Modi said.