Pedro Sanchez invites the Pope to visit Seville in June 2025

Sanchez made this request to the Pope after meeting him at the Vatican. According to the EP, Government President Pedro Sanchez said after a private meeting of about 35 minutes with the Pope that he had extended two official invitations to the pontiff to visit the Canary Islands and Seville.

The official invitation to the Holy See by heads of state and government is one of the fundamental requirements for the team that manages Francis’ international agenda to begin taking concrete steps for preparations.

The last Pope to visit Seville was John Paul II On two occasions in the capital of SevilleFirst in 1982 and later in 1993 to attend the closing ceremony of the International Eucharistic Congress held in the city.

Sánchez clarified to the media at the Spanish Academy in Rome, where he offered a press conference after the meeting with Francisco, that the invitation to visit the Canary Islands was based on “the interest of the Holy See in knowing the reality of the Canary people”. Is based. , especially due to the migratory flow that is reaching its shores.

In fact, Sanchez’s visit came just weeks after Pope expresses desire to visit Canary Islands amid migration crisis Which affects the archipelago. In particular, on September 13, at a press conference on the plane returning from his tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania, the Pope said that in the Canary Islands “the situation of immigrants arriving by sea is dire.” For this reason, he said he would like “to be closer to the rulers and people of the Canary Islands.”

For his part, the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, also invited the Pontiff to visit the archipelago to learn about the migrant reality last January when he met him in the Vatican. Francisco had already talked about the possibility of visiting Argentina during the second quarter of the year and Clavijo suggested a stay in the Canary Islands.