Pope Francis will receive Lula at the Vatican on June 21

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be received by Pope Francis next Wednesday (21), according to information released by the Vatican this Friday (16). The Brazilian presidency had already anticipated Lula’s visit to Italy and the Vatican on May 31, when the president spoke with the pontiff and invited him to come to Brazil.

The meeting will take place at the papal palace at 2:30 pm (9:30 am Brasilia time), a few days after the pope was discharged from hospital. The pontiff was hospitalized from the 7th to this Thursday (15th) at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, where he was operated on for an abdominal hernia.

The audience with the Pope is part of the international trips made by Lula to return to “put Brazil in the world”, after four years of relative isolation during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), explained the presidency of Brazil.

Lula visited the Vatican in November 2008 to meet with Benedict XVI, who also visited the country in 2007, and later returned as a former president to meet Pope Francis on February 13, 2020. At the time, the audience lasted about an hour and focused on themes such as democracy, the environment and inequalities, as well as the need for an economy that involves young people and the poor.