Pope Francis has cancelled a speech during his visit to Auschwitz this month, saying he would prefer to mark the moment in silence.
The Vatican’s schedule for the Pope’s visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 29 had him giving a speech just as St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI did.
But on the flight back to Rome from Armenia, Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told Pope Francis: “I heard that you want to live that moment more with silence than words.”
The Pope reminded reporters that in 2014 when he went to Redipuglia in northern Italy to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I, “I went in silence,” walking alone among the graves. “Then there was the Mass and I preached at Mass, but that was something else.”
