LUXEMBOURG — A visibly tired Pope Francis arrived in Luxembourg on Thursday, kicking off a four-day visit to the small nation and neighbouring Belgium that follows a gruelling Asia-Pacific trip.
Recovering from a mild flu, the 87-year-old pontiff broke with his custom of individually greeting the journalists travelling with him aboard the papal plane, telling them “I don’t feel able.”
The blue aircraft landed at Luxembourg Airport at 10:00 am (0800 GMT), on the first stop of a trip to “the heart of Europe” that the pope will use to discuss the continent’s role in the world.
Intermittently using a wheelchair and walking cane, Francis was greeted by Grand Duke Henri, his wife Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa, Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, a close friend of the pontiff.
Together, Luxembourg and Belgium host multiple major European institutions, making them a part of the world that others look to, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See press office.
Bringing his message “to the heart of Europe” against a backdrop of soaring international tensions, Francis will evoke the role the continent “wants to play in the world in the near future” for peace and solidarity, Bruni told a press conference.
The head of the Catholic Church addressed Luxembourg authorities on Thursday morning and met a few hundred faithful at Notre-Dame Cathedral in the afternoon, during an eight-hour stay in the wealthy financial services hub.
It was the first papal visit to the country in almost 40 years.
Jean Ehret, a priest and director of the Luxembourg School Of Religion & Society, described the occasion as “historic” and “unexpected”, quipping that the small Grand Duchy does not usually top a pontiff’s travel list.
In 1985, John Paul II celebrated what remains the largest mass in Luxembourg’s history, attended by around 60,000 worshippers.
The small nation’s population has since almost doubled to 654,000, thanks in particular to the attractiveness of its financial centre.
Sandwiched between Belgium, Germany and France, landlocked Luxembourg is home to the European Investment Bank and the Court of Justice of the European Union among other European institutions, and has one of the world’s highest rates of gross domestic income per capita.
About 41 percent of Luxembourgers are Catholic, according to the Vatican.
