The president of the Canary Islands Government, Ángel Víctor Torres, invited Pope Francis this Wednesday to visit the Canary Islands, during the greeting after the general audience in the Paul VI hall in which the delegation of Club Deportivo Tenerife participated on the occasion of its centenary.
Torres went to the Vatican together with the delegation of the football club, the president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Pedro Martín, and Bishop Bernardo Álvarez, to participate in the traditional general audience on Wednesdays that Pope Francis celebrates, and after which they were able to greet the Argentine pontiff and give him some gifts.
The Canarian president described this greeting in statements to EFE as "historic", due to the centenary of the football club, and "very emotional", since the Pope "is a personality that goes beyond the religious".
"He is an example in everything, in the ethical and moral aspect and in his message of working for the most vulnerable," he added.
He stressed that having organized this audience by CD Tenerife "was a success" and that it "places the Canary Islands on the map".
The delegation gave the pontiff a pennant, a shirt and a scarf from the team and some Canarian pintaderas that, Torres explained, "reflect the pre-Hispanic Canarian reality and the aboriginal reality of our land".
The anecdote of the greeting was that the Pope, upon receiving the scarf, jokingly asked "if it was so cold in the Canary Islands".
The occasion served for the president to invite Francis to visit the Canary Islands. "If possible, it would be an honor," he said.
"We share the language, we share many things both with Argentina, with Latin America and it has been a very special moment for Club Tenerife, for sports and for the Canary Islands as a whole", he added.
Regarding the message that the Pope sent for the disaster of the eruption of the La Palma volcano, Torres commented that he knows that the Pope has been "very aware of the suffering of La Palma, of the people of La Palma and this must be thanked".
For his part, Pedro Martín stressed that it has been for him "a unique occasion".
"Having the possibility of being close, of telling him about our island and if we also do it with a delegation from Tenerife that is celebrating its 100th anniversary, it is something that we will remember forever".
Martín also reiterated the invitation to the Pope: "We all want him to be in our country, in our region and, if possible, to go to Tenerife".