There was something extraordinary in the manner a handful of newspapers reported over the weekend that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will call on Pope Francis at the Vatican during his Rome stopover for the first of two multinational meetings in Europe.
Newsroom (25/10/2021 4:30 PM Gaudium Press) – It is understood that PM Modi will attend the G-20 summit on October 30-31 before flying off to Glasgow in Scotland to attend the COP26 summit for strategizing on how to deal with challenges arising from climate change.
There was no official confirmation of the meeting other than the news leak, which foreign correspondents would normally call a trial balloon. However, sources have indicated that Prime Minister Modi will leave India a day early on October 28 night to meet the 84-year-old sovereign of Vatican City State as a courtesy call.
The official statement by the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs has not gone beyond saying Modi will be travelling to Rome and Glasgow from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2 with the agenda as follows:
In Rome, the PM will participate in the G20 Summit from Oct. 30-31 and will have a separate meeting with his Italian counterpart Mario Draghi. Italy is the current chair of the economic summit, which will also see the participation of the European Union in a discussion on recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and global health governance.
Modi then goes to Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Summit of leaders of 120 countries from Nov. 1-2.
Pope Francis has expressed his desire to visit India several times since becoming the leader of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, a year before Modi became the Indian prime minister.
The Indian government has put the papal visit on hold for undisclosed reasons.
In the past eight years, Pope Francis has visited 52 countries, starting with Brazil in July 2013. His last visit was to Hungary and Slovakia in September this year.
The pontiff has visited India’s neighbors — Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Other Asian countries visited by Pope Francis are Japan, Iraq, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates.
Church sources in India have expressed the hope that the Modi-Pope meeting will pave way for a papal visit to the country in near future. However, there has been no official word from the Church authorities about the meeting between the two leaders. The report about the meeting has come amid increasing attacks on Christians in various parts of India.
