Pope Francis to Visit the Philippines in 2016

The head of the Roman Catholic Church, the world’s largest religion, Pope Francis will visit the Philippines this coming January 2016. The highest official of the Roman Catholic is supposed to visit the Philippines in May but the schedule was moved from May 2016 to its new date, January 25-31, 2016.

See Also: Pope Francis to Visit the Philippines in January 2015

The Pope will visit Cebu for the International Eucharistic Congress which was originally scheduled on May 23 to 29, 2016. The announcement was made by CBCP and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma after he received a request from the Vatican to move the International Eucharistic Congress.

Archbishop Palma was quoted as saying that, “Two weeks ago, we received a letter from Archbishop Marini asking us if we could move the event to the second preferred date because the Pope has another schedule in May,” Palma said.

The Cebu Archbishop was referring to Archbishop Piero Marini, the president of the Pontifical Committee on the International Eucharistic Congress. The archbishop agreed with the change of date because one of the priority is the Pope’s visit to the Philippines.

The main reasons of Vatican for changing the date was the unavailability of the Pope during the first scheduled date of the International Eucharist Congress. The Archbishop of Cebu and CBCP President also called on the people to pray so that the visit will push through.