Pope would like to visit Auschwitz, Polish president says

In Vatican meeting, Andrzej Duda says pontiff expressed desire to tour Nazi death camp during trip to Poland next summer

By AFP 9 November 2015, 5:26 pm

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Polish President Andrzej Duda has a private audience with Pope Francis on November 9, 2015 in Vatican City. (AFP/ ETTORE FERRARI)

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.