Pope urges prayers for visit to Kazakhstan for a "peace pilgrimage"

Pope Francis urged prayers to accompany him this week on what he calls his "pilgrimage of peace" to Kazakhstan for a meeting of religious leaders on September 11.

In St. Peter’s Square, Francis noted that on September 13, he begins a three-day visit to that central Asian country to participate in a gathering of heads of the world and traditional religions.

Pope Francis travels to the Central Asian nation primarily to take part in the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which will be held in Nur-Sultan on September 14–15.

Pope Francis said, "It will be an opportunity to meet a great many religious representatives and to dialogue as brothers and sisters, animated by our common desire for peace, the peace for which our world is thirsting."

"I ask everyone to accompany me in prayer on this pilgrimage of peace,'' the pontiff said.

The Pope extended his "cordial greetings" to all those who will take part in the Congress, as well as to local Christian communities and all Kazakhs. The Pope requests that everyone accompany this pilgrimage of peace with prayer.

The Pope had the first-ever encounter between a pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch in 2016. 

Plans for a second encounter earlier this year were postponed over the diplomatic fallout of the war in Ukraine.

Over 30 years after the Soviet Union's demise, Pope Francis will carry on that message of peace while also reaffirming Catholics' faith.

The Church in Kazakhstan has endured many decades of persecution under the Soviet Communist regime.

Everyone hoped that the Pope's visit would give concrete testimony of the closeness of the pope and the Catholic Church. - With input from Vatican News