Francis made him a cardinal, the highest rank in the Church below pope, in 2023. The Vatican estimates that 81.5% of Corsica's population of 356,000 is Catholic.

Pope Francis is welcomed by children as he arrives at Ajaccio International Airport on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024.

Pope Francis stands as he celebrates a mass Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Ajaccio on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica . Credit: AP/Thibault Camus ...

Pope Francis will visit Corsica on Dec. 15, the Vatican said on Saturday, the first recorded trip of a pope to the French Mediterranean island.

Pope Francis presides over a mass in Ajaccio, on December 15, 2024. ALESSANDRA TARANTINO/AP Less than a month of preparation. The Chjami Aghjalesi, a famous group of singers from the Balagne area ...

AJACCIO, Corsica (AP) — Pope Francis' one-day visit to the French island of Corsica on Sunday, two days before his 88th birthday, puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, ...

OP-ED. Theologian François Euvé explains why Pope Francis has chosen to visit Ajaccio (Corsica) on Sunday for a symposium on popular religion, rather than Paris for the reopening of Notre-Dame.

Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo of Ajaccio, on the French island of Corsica, greets well-wishers in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican after a consistory where Pope Francis made him and 20 ...

Pope Francis will visit Corsica. Here's how his historic trip was planned After days of behind-the-scenes talks, the pope's visit to Corsica on December 15 was confirmed by the Vatican.

People walk past a mural featuring Pope Francis prior to the Pope’s visit, in Ajaccio, in the southern French island of Corsica, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) ...

AJACCIO, Corsica (AP) — Pope Francis' one-day visit to the French island of Corsica on Sunday, two days before his 88th birthday, puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, ...

AJACCIO, Corsica — Pope Francis on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica on Sunday called for a dynamic form of laicism, promoting the kind of popular piety that ...