(Feb.10, 2010): Pope Benedict XVI will make a pastoral visit to Malta on 17 and
18 April to commemorate the 1950th anniversary of St. Paul’s shipwreck
on the island. A detailed schedule of the Pontiff’s two-day visit to the island nation
was released by the Holy See’s press on Wednesday morning. The Pope will leave on
Saturday, 17 April from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport at 3.25 p.m. arriving at the Maltese
International airport of Luqa around 5 p.m. The Pope’s first appointment will be
a courtesy visit to the President of the Republic of Malta at the presidential Palace
in the capital city of La Valletta. Later the same day, the Pope will visit St. Paul’s
Grotto at Rabat. The following day on 18 April Pope Benedict will go to Floriana,
where he will celebrate Sunday Mass and recite the Regina Coeli. Later after lunch
on Sunday with the Bishops of Malta at the Apostolic Nunciature at Rabat, the Pope
will travel by ship from the Port of Kalkara to the Port of Valletta, for his meeting
with youth, and then fly back directly to Rome arriving at Ciampino Airport around
8.45 p.m.