Pope Francis won’t attend Montreal anniversary celebrations in 2017
MONTREAL — Pope Francis won’t be visiting Montreal, or anywhere else in Canada, in 2017.
It was hoped that the Pope would visit the city next year as part of its 375th anniversary celebrations.
Mayor Denis Coderre personally invited Pope Francis to the city during a meeting at the Vatican in February, 2015, and in June of this year said he believed efforts to arrange the visit were going well.
But in a letter to the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, a Vatican official says “Pope Francis wishes to communicate that it will not be possible for him to visit Canada in 2017.”