Pope’s Cyprus visit confirmed

(April 10, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI will be on a three-day visit to Cyprus in June this year, the Vatican officially confirmed on Saturday. The Vatican’s Press Office released the programme of the June 4 - 6 visit, which will be Pope Benedict’s third foreign trip this year after Malta, next weekend, and Portugal, in mid-May. In between he will make a day visit to the northern Italian city of Turin, to pray at the Holy Shroud , believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The Pope’s visit to the Mediterrenean island, which is politically divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, is to release the working document for the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East. Pope Benedict will be welcomed in Cyprus at Paphos in the afternoon of June 4. He will then hold an ecumenical service in the local church. The following day after a courtesy visit to the president in the capital Nicosia, he will hold a meeting with civil authorities and the diplomatic corps, and later address the Catholic community of Cyprus. In the evening he will celebrate Mass for priests, religious and others at Nicosia’s Holy Cross Church. On the last day, Sunday, June 6, the Pope will celebrate a morning Mass at Nicosia’s Eleftheria Athletic Center, during which he will publish the working document of the Middle East Synod. He will fly back to Rome that evening. The theme of the synod, scheduled for Oct. 10-24 in the Vatican is: "The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness: 'The community of believers was of one heart and mind.'"