Pope Francis will arrive in Tbilisi, Georgia, on the afternoon of Friday 30 September. He will greet the President of the Republic, Giorgi Margvelashvili, the civil authorities and the diplomatic corps. Then he will have a private meeting with Ilia II, Catholicos and Patriarch of All Georgia, at the Patriarchate, and later meet with about 300 representatives of the Assyrian-Chaldean community. This will be a "spiritual encounter" conducted in Aramaic. It will also include the Pope's prayer for peace in Syria and Iraq.
The next day, the Pope will celebrate the Eucharist in M. Meskhi stadium with the Catholic community of Georgia - about 2.5% of the five million population. He will meet the clergy and pastoral workers and, in the afternoon, 700 of the Church's charitable workers with the people they assist. The day will end with a visit to the cathedral in Svetitskhoveli.
On Sunday morning Pope Francis will leave for Baku in Azerbaijan, a secular state with nine million inhabitants and a Catholic community of only a few hundred. The Pope will celebrate Mass with them in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the centre run by the Salesians. They serve the apostolic prefecture of the country, together with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Sisters of Mother Teresa. Pope Francis will have lunch with the Salesians and will then pay a courtesy visit to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev.
He will continue with a visit to the Memorial of those who died in the struggle for Independence, and then go to the Heydar Aliyev Centre to meet the authorities. Finally, the Holy Father will go to the Heydar Aliyev Mosque for an interreligious meeting with the Sheikh and representatives from the different religious communities. In the evening he will leave for Rome.
