Invoking Mary’s protection for his impending journey to Kazakhstan, Pope Francis prayed on Monday night in front of the highly revered Marian image of Salus Populi Romani (“Protection of the Roman People”) at Santa Maria Maggiore.
The pope will make his second trip to the sizable, landlocked Asian nation from September 13–15 for an interreligious gathering. Since 2003, the summit in Kazakhstan has taken place every three years (it was postponed last year because to the COVID-19 epidemic). This year, it is anticipated that more than 100 delegations from diverse faiths from 60 different nations would attend.
Kazakhstan is a nation with a mainly Muslim population and is home to an estimated 250,000 Catholics from various ethnic backgrounds.
The majority of Kazakhstan’s Catholics follow the Latin Rite, although there is a small (around 3,000) Eastern Rite population. In 2001, St. John Paul II received a warm welcome during his visit.
Franciscan missionaries most likely preached the gospel to Kazakhstan’s inhabitants for the first time in the 13th century. Due to the deportations of believers from all around the Soviet Union, the Catholic population increased.
When it was a part of the Soviet Union, religious minorities faced active persecution; now, it is an officially secular state where religious freedom is recognised.
Pope Francis will depart from Rome early on Tuesday, September 13, and go immediately to Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan and a significant metropolis of more than 1 million people formerly known as Astana.
At the presidential palace, he will be given a formal welcome and be greeted by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
The pope will meet with civic officials and the diplomatic corps at the Kazakhstan Central Concert Hall later that evening.
The VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions will begin on Wednesday with an inaugural plenary session at the Palace of Independence.
Pope Francis will have the chance to interact with several Muslim leaders participating at the meeting, including those from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and other countries in Central Asia.
The pope will meet privately with several religious leaders present at the assembly after the session. And later that day, around 4:45 p.m. Pope Francis will offer Mass at the exhibition at local time.
The pope will have a private meeting in the apostolic nunciature with members of the Society of Jesus on the penultimate morning of his tour.
After that, he will have a meeting with bishops, priests, deacons, those who have been consecrated, seminarians, and pastoral staff.
The outspoken Bishop Athanasius Schneider, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Maria Santissima in Astana, is one of the reasons why Kazakhstan has recently been known as a stronghold of Orthodox Catholicism.
The reading of the Congress’s final declaration and conclusion will take place that afternoon in the Palace of Independence, and the pope will then depart for Rome after attending a goodbye ceremony at Nur-Sultan International Airport.
Pope Francis’ visit and the interreligious gathering are almost timed to the 30th anniversary of the Holy See and Kazakhstan establishing diplomatic ties on October 17, 1992.
The individuals Pope Francis may or may not meet during his visit are another reason why it is noteworthy.
While it is anticipated that Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Kazakhstan on the same day as Pope Francis, it is doubtful that Xi, who is in charge of China’s persecution of believers of all faiths, would attend the summit of Muslim, Christian, and other religious leaders.
On September 14, the day of Xi’s arrival to the Kazakh capital, the pope is planned to have private discussions with some of the attendees of the interreligious summit at midday.
Although his Church will send a team, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is not anticipated to attend the interreligious summit.
It was anticipated he would speak with Pope Francis about finding a peaceful way to end the conflict in Ukraine.
As a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a backer of Putin’s military operations in Ukraine, Kirill is well-known in this regard.
The pope’s visit takes place against the backdrop of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, and as a result, the papal jet will make special efforts to avoid entering Russian airspace on September 13 and will instead travel farther south.