Pope visits Fatima shrine in Portugal; skips key address

tallwookie , 11 months ago

pope does pope things

autotldr Bot , 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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The 86-year-old pope skipped reading a speech that was on the programme of his two-hour visit to the world-famous shrine north of Lisbon, and which was expected to have been the centrepiece of the day.

He stopped often to kiss babies and comfort the sick as he made his way back to a helicopter transporting him to the next event on his five-day trip to Portugal.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the pope’s apparently last-minute decision to skip the speech had nothing to do with Francis’ eyesight.

“The pope always addresses firstly the people he meets, as a shepherd, and speaks accordingly,” Bruni said in response to questions from reporters.

Francis flew in from Lisbon - the venue of a Catholic youth festival - to make his second visit as pope to the shrine that draws millions of pilgrims a year.

At the start of his visit a smoke cloud caused by a wild fire at Castelo Branco, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Fatima, hovered over one side of the sanctuary and tiny specks of ash fell.

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