Three Indian cardinals met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a possible visit to the country by Pope Francis.
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Indian bishops’ conference, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay who head India’s largest archdiocese, and Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, met with the Prime Minister Feb. 7 in New Delhi.
“The Prime Minister informed [us] that the government holds a favorable attitude toward the Pope’s visit to India,” the bishop’s press release said without giving any further details of the meeting.
Federal External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had extended an invitation to the Pope to visit India when she visited the Vatican during Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s canonization in September 2016.
Pope Francis had said in October 2016 that he would “almost certainly” visit India in 2017. A source close to the Prime Minister’s office told ucanews.com that the meeting was of a “confidential nature” as it discussed sensitive issues such as government steps to secure freedom for kidnapped Father Thomas Uzhunallil.
