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 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.

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) ...

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 boards an airplane at Rome's Fiumicino airport as he leaves for his one-day visit to Ajaccio on the French island of Corsica, on Dec.15.

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.

AJACCIO, Corsica (AP) — 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 ...

Pope Francis delivers the Angelus prayer inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Ajaccio on the occasion of his one-day visit in the French island of Corsica, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...