(August 28, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI will become the third Pope to visit Sardinia,
an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. The Holy See published Wednesday the
program of the papal visit to Cagliari, Sardinia, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 7. The
one-day visit will include a meeting with young people in the capital's Yenne square.
The principal event will be a Mass in the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria, marking the
conclusion of the centenary of the proclamation of the Virgin of Bonaria as patroness
of Sardinia. The Holy Father will also pray the midday Angelus at the shrine. Subsequently,
he will go to the regional seminary, where he will dine with Sardinian bishops. In
the afternoon, before his meeting with young people, Pope Benedict XVI will visit
Cagliari's cathedral, where he will be awaited by seminarians and professors of the
island's Pontifical Faculty of Theology. After his meeting with young people, the
Pontiff will return by plane to Rome. This will be Pope Benedict XVI's first trip
to Sardinia, and the third time a Pope visits the island. Pope Paul VI visited Sardinia
in 1970 and Pope John Paul II in 1985.