Vatican updates schedule for papal visit to Baltic states

Vatican updates schedule for papal visit to Baltic states

Pope Francis will make a four-day trip to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

The Vatican has issued an updated schedule of this month’s papal visit to the Baltic states.

It said the trip would include a prayer in Vilnius, Lithuania, at a monument to members of the city’s Jewish community who perished under Nazi occupation.

The Vatican published a detailed programme for the Pope’s trip to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, adding times for events that had been listed without them when the first schedule was published in early July.

The only addition to the itinerary, which includes visits to important Marian shrines and to places commemorating the nations’ fight for liberty, is the stop for prayer on September 23 at the monument to victims forced by the Nazis into the Vilnius Ghetto. Under Nazi occupation, the city’s Jewish population went from an estimated 40,000 to zero. Most were taken in groups to the woods outside the city and shot.

Here is the updated scheduled released by the Vatican. Times listed are local, with Eastern Daylight Time in parentheses:

Saturday, September 22 (Rome, Vilnius)

— 7:30 am (1:30 am) Departure from Rome’s Fiumicino airport for Vilnius, Lithuania.
— 11:30 am (4:30 am) Arrival at Vilnius’ international airport. Welcoming ceremony at the airport.
— 12:10 pm (5:10 am) Courtesy visit with the president at the presidential palace.
— 12:40 pm (5:40 am) Meeting with government authorities, local leaders and representatives of the diplomatic corps outside the presidential palace. Speech by pope.
— 4:30 pm (9:30 am) Visit to the Shrine of Mary, Mother of Mercy (Mater Misericordiae). Prayer by pope.
— 5:30 pm (10:30 a.m.) Meeting with young people in the square by the city’s cathedral. Speech by pope.
— 6:40 pm (11:40 am) Visit to the city’s cathedral.

Sunday, September 23 (Vilnius, Kaunas, Vilnius)

— 8:15 am (1:15 am) Transfer from Vilnius to Kaunas by car.
— 10 am (3 am) Mass at Kaunas’ Santakos park. Homily by pope.
— Noon. (5 am) Angelus prayer at Santakos park. Remarks by pope.
— 12:35 pm (5:35 am) Lunch with the bishops at the curial house.
— 3 pm (8 am) Meeting with priests, men and women religious and seminarians in the Kaunas cathedral. Speech by pope.
— 4 pm (9 am) Transfer by car to Vilnius with a stop for prayer at the monument to the victims of the Vilnius Ghetto.
— 5:30 pm (10:30 am) Visit and prayer at the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights. Prayer by pope.

Monday, September 24 (Vilnius, Riga, Vilnius)

— 7:20 am (12:20 am) Departure by airplane from Vilnius’ international airport to the international airport of Riga, Latvia.
— 8:20 am (1:20 am) Arrival at the international airport of Riga, Latvia. Official welcome.
— 8:50 am (1:50 am) Welcoming ceremony in the courtyard of the presidential palace.
— 9:05 am (2:05 am) Courtesy visit with the president in the presidential palace.
— 9:30 am (2:30 am) Meeting with government authorities, local leaders and representatives of the diplomatic corps at the presidential palace. Speech by pope.
— 10:10 am (3:10 am) Ceremony and placement of flowers at the Freedom Monument.
— 10:40 am (3:40 am) Ecumenical prayer in Riga’s Lutheran cathedral. Speech by pope.
— 11:50 am (4:50 am) Visit to the Catholic Cathedral of St. James. Greeting by pope.
— 12:30 pm (5:30 am) Lunch with the bishops at the archdiocesan house of the Holy Family.
— 2:30 pm (7:30 am) Transfer by helicopter from Riga’s harbor helipad to the Shrine of Mary, Mother of God in Aglona.
— 4:30 pm.(9:30 am) Mass outside the shrine. Homily by pope.
— 6:30 pm (11:30 am) Farewell ceremony at the heliport of Aglona.
— 6:45 pm (11:45 am) Transfer by helicopter to the international airport of Vilnius.

Tuesday, September 25 (Vilnius, Tallinn, Rome)

— 8:15 am. (1:15 am) Farewell ceremony at the international airport of Vilnius.
— 8:30 am. (1:30 am) Departure from international airport of Vilnius for Tallinn, Estonia.
— 9:50 am. (2:50 am) Arrival at Tallinn’s international airport. Official welcome.
— 10:15 am. (3:15 am) Welcoming ceremony in the square near the presidential palace.
— 10:30 am. (3:30 am) Courtesy visit with the president in the presidential palace.
— 11 am. (4 am) Meeting with government authorities, local leaders and representatives of the diplomatic corps in the garden of the presidential palace. Speech by pope.
— 11:50 am (4:50 am) Ecumenical encounter with young people in Kaarli Lutheran Church. Speech by pope.
— 1 pm (6 am) Lunch with the papal entourage in a Brigidine Sisters’ convent.
— 3:15 pm (8:15 am) Encounter in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul with people receiving assistance from the church’s charitable services. Greeting by pope.
— 4:30 pm (9:30 am) Mass in Freedom Square. Homily by pope.
— 6:30 pm (11:30 am) Farewell ceremony at Tallinn’s international airport.
— 6:45 pm (11:45 am) Departure from Tallinn to Rome.
— 9:20 pm (3:20 pm) Arrival at Rome’s Ciampino airport.

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