VATICAN (CNS): During an interview with COPE, the radio station owned by the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, and broadcast on September 1, Pope Francis indicate that he planned to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference—COP26—in Glasgow, Scotland, in early November.
“Yes, in principle, the plan is that I go,” the pope said. “It all depends on how I feel at the time. But in fact, my speech is already being prepared, and the plan is to be there.”
Pope Francis is expected to host about three dozen religious leaders from around the world at a meeting at the Vatican and in Rome on October 4 in preparation for the summit. He was looking forward to the October meeting with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
COPE also asked the pope about a possible visit to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, to mark the Holy Year, also known as the Jacobean Year. The Holy Year will conclude on 31 December 2022.
The Holy Year is celebrated in Compostela in years when the July 25 feast of St. James the Great falls on a Sunday. The most recent Holy Year was observed in 2010.
Pope Francis said that he had spoken to the president of the Xunta de Galicia, the government authority of the region where Compostela is located, and told him he “would think about the matter.”
However, the pope said that when it comes to visiting European countries, he prefers going to “small countries.”
He said of his past visits in Europe, “First, it was Albania and then all the countries that were small. Now, Slovakia is on the programme, then Cyprus, Greece and Malta. I wanted to take that option: first to the smaller countries.”
He also noted that when he visited Strasbourg, France, in 2014, it was a one-day trip solely to address the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
“I went to Strasbourg, but I did not go to France. I went to Strasbourg because of the EU. And if I go to Santiago [de Compostela], I will go to Santiago [de Compostela] but not to Spain, let’s be clear,” he added.
Before visiting Slovakia on September 12, Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Budapest, Hungary, for seven hours. He will preside over the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress.
The pope is also scheduled to meet with Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, a conservative who has often found himself at odds with the pope, particularly when it comes to immigration.
When asked what he would tell Orbán, the pope said he preferred “not to go around with a script” and that when he is in front of someone, “I look him in the eyes and let things come out.”
The pope said, “It doesn’t even occur to me to think about what I’m going to say if I’m with him, [to think about] those potential future situations; that doesn’t help me. I like the concrete. Thinking about potential future situations tangles you, it is not good for you.”
