CT News
May 5, 2026 : Pope Leo XIV will celebrate his first anniversary of pontificate with a pastoral visit to Pompeii and Naples. The one-day visit will begin at the Shrine of Pompeii, where the Pope will meet with members of a local charitable organization and the vulnerable people whom they serve.
There, he will preside over a solemn Mass, which will include the traditional supplication to the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii, a devotion that has been very meaningful to him since the beginning of his pontificate.
Pope Leo’s visit comes eleven years after the last papal pilgrimage to Pompeii by Pope Francis in March 2015. The first Pope to visit the city was Saint John Paul II in 1979, who returned again in 2003. Pope Benedict XVI also visited in 2008 to pray before the Virgin's image.
During his visit, Pope Leo XIV will also pray in the Shrine before the chapel of Saint Bartolo Longo, who was canonised on 19 October 2025. The devotion to the founder of Pompeii’s Shrine has grown significantly since his canonisation.
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