The bishops of the two dioceses of the Canary Islands, José Mazuelos and Eloy Santiago, will invite Pope Leo XIV to visit the islands, thus making the trip that Francis repeatedly stated he wanted to make, but was unable to do due to his health problems.
Mazuelos himself, bishop of the Diocese of the Canary Islands (province of Las Palmas), announced it in his first words after learning that the Vatican Conclave had elected the American cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the new pontiff.
Francis' predecessor, Leo XIV, dedicated his first trip as Pope in 2013 to visiting the island of Lampedusa to express his closeness to the immigrants rescued from the Mediterranean and, for more than a year now, he had announced his desire to repeat that experience by traveling to the Canary Islands, to give his encouragement to those who survive the Atlantic Route, one of the deadliest in the world.
To date, no Pope has visited the Canary Islands, so those words had aroused great enthusiasm among the faithful of the islands, to whom Francis dedicated repeated praise for how the Canarian people have behaved in the face of the constant arrival of canoes.
Therefore, the bishop of the Diocese of the Canary Islands and his counterpart from the Diocese of Nivariense (province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife) will write to Leo XIV to personally invite him to visit the archipelago.
However, José Mazuelos has underlined a detail: the Church, he said, "has not elected Francis' successor today, it has elected Peter's successor."
"And Leo XIV will know how to shepherd the people of God with humility, courage and joy," he added in statements provided by the Bishopric.
José Mazuelos also stressed that Robert Prevost "is a missionary pope, American by nationality, but with a Latin American soul", who has lived "more than 40 years in Peru, knows the reality of the poor and has worked directly with them".
"That makes him a man of the universal Church, with great humility and deep knowledge," he says.
In his opinion, this missionary trajectory reflects his commitment to a Church "close to the peripheries and with sensitivity towards the most needy."
The bishops of the Canary Islands will invite the Pope to make the visit that Francis could not make
Mazuelos himself, bishop of the Diocese of the Canary Islands, announced it in his first words after learning that the Vatican Conclave had elected the American cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the new pontiff.
