Dates for pope’s Greece and Cyprus visits announced

Pope Francis will visit Cyprus and Greece, including the Greek island of Lesbos to meet migrants, from December 2-6, a Vatican source said on Tuesday.

Francis will stay in Cyprus December 2-4, his first visit to the divided island, the source said.

The source said Francis would leave Cyprus for Athens on December 4. The next day, he makes a day trip to Lesvos, in Greece, where in 2016 he visited the Moria camp and returned to Rome with a dozen Syrian refugees.

The pontiff is expected to meet President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Athens Archbishop and head of the Orthodox Church of Greece Ieronymos as well as Greek Catholics. 

Francis is due to return to Rome from Athens on December 6, the source added. [Reuters, AMNA]