VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis’ trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan will be filled with religiously symbolic encounters with Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims and Jews. Current events in Syria and other geopolitical concerns might overshadow the message.
Francis arrives Friday in the Georgian capital, Tblisi, and plunges right into the protocol of a papal visit: an airport welcome ceremony, a courtesy visit to President Giorgi Margvelashvili, a welcome speech and an eagerly anticipated meeting with Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia.
Later in the day, though, he will issue a strong appeal for peace in Syria and Iraq, where Christians are being attacked and driven from their homes by Islamic extremists and where Francis has strongly condemned the recent assault by Russian and Syrian forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
A special prayer for peace is planned Friday evening in the Chaldean Catholic church in Tbilisi with members of the Assyrian Chaldean church leadership. It comes just days after Francis warned those responsible for the Aleppo siege “will be held accountable before God.”
On the eve of his visit, he met with aid groups working in Syria and urged all governments involved to “renounce their own interests in order to achieve the greater good: peace.”