Pope Francis wants to visit Auschwitz when he visits Poland in July 2016, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Monday after meeting the pontiff.
The Argentinian pope also expressed a desire to visit a celebrated Catholic shrine at Czestochowa when he visits the city of Krakow to mark World Youth Day, Duda told reporters, according to specialist Vatican news agency I-media.
The Vatican did not immediately confirm that Francis planned to visit the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, which was visited by both his predecessors, Benedict XVI and John-Paul II, during their respective visits to Poland.
A Vatican statement said the pope and Duda had discussed the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East and Europe’s migrant crisis, which is a very sensitive subject in Poland.
The country’s ruling Law and Justice party, of which Duda is a member, has been reluctant to take part in an EU-wide operation to absorb some of the refugees arriving in Europe while the pope has led calls for governments to adopt a more open approach.
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