As Singapore prepares for the much-anticipated official visit of Pope Francis in September, a detailed itinerary of his visit has been released.
According to the timetable posted on the Vatican’s website on Friday (5 July), he will visit Catholic Junior College (CJC) and St Theresa’s Home.
Source: Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash
The venue for the Papal Mass will be the biggest in Singapore — the National Stadium.
According to the itinerary, the Pope’s visit to Singapore will begin when he arrives in Changi Airport at 2.15pm on 11 Sept.
He will receive an official welcome after touching down, following which the first item on the agenda is a visit to the St Francis Xavier Retreat Centre, a seminary in Punggol.
Source: Google Maps
At 6.15pm, he will have a private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus, a Catholic order of priests and brothers.
The next day, the 87-year-old Pontiff’s visit will kick into gear at 9am when he attends a welcome ceremony at Parliament House.
He will pay a courtesy visit to President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at 9.30am and meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at 9.55am.
The diplomatic meetings continue in the National University of Singapore’s University Cultural Centre at 10.30am, when he will meet the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps.
When the formalities are done, the Pope will host arguably the highlight of his trip — a Papal Mass at the National Stadium, which seats 55,000.
Source: Singapore Sports Hub on Facebook
Devotees can ballot for tickets to the mass via their myCatholicSG accounts from now till 31 July. According to the Archdiocese of Singapore, each parish will also have a few seats reserved for both the elderly — 85 years and above — and wheelchair users with a valid Persons-with-Disability (PWD) card.
The mass may last about six hours, so devotees are to keep in mind the long duration when registering, especially for those with medical needs.
On 13 Sept, the last day of the Pope’s trip, he will focus on the sick, elderly and young.
At 9.15am, he will first go to St Theresa’s Home, a nursing home along Upper Thomson Road.
Source: Google Maps
There, he will visit a group of sick and elderly people. The Pope has highlighted the importance of honouring the elderly, cautioning against condescension or contempt for them during religious instructions given in April 2022.
At 10pm, he will proceed to CJC for an inter-religious meeting with young people.
Source: Google Maps
The Pope also called for young people to be educated about life and its stages during the same catechesis in 2022.
His visit will subsequently end with a farewell ceremony at Changi Airport at 11.20am before he departs by plane at 11.50am.
Also read: Pope Francis mass seat reservations for seniors & wheelchair users open, register via parishes
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Featured image adapted from Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash, Google Maps and Google Maps.
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