Pope Leo XIV is not going to journey to the United States in 2026, Vatican spokesman says

Pope Leo XIV is not going to journey to the United States in 2026, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, stated Sunday, denying circulating reviews that the pontiff would possibly make an apostolic journey to his native nation.

A U.S. go to had been anticipated by some American Catholics forward of the nation’s 250th anniversary of independence on July 4, 2026.

At the identical time, papal journey elsewhere is taking form. Local church authorities in Africa have stated Leo will go to a number of international locations on the continent — with Angola and Equatorial Guinea among the many locations publicly confirmed by native authorities, and Cameroon additionally broadly anticipated as a part of the itinerary — with timing broadly described as after Easter.

In South America, Peruvian bishops have stated the pope will go to the nation — the place he beforehand served as a bishop — later this yr, with native church leaders pointing to a timeframe in November or early December.

A go to to Spain can also be anticipated this summer time, with Spanish church authorities indicating stops together with Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands.

Popes have visited the United States a number of occasions, starting with Pope Paul VI’s October 1965 journey, which included a go to to the United Nations.

St. John Paul II traveled to the U.S. on a number of events, first visiting in October 1979 with stops in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Chicago, and Washington, the place he met then-President Jimmy Carter. Among his later visits, he returned in 1995 for the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations and made his ultimate U.S. journey to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1999.

Pope Benedict XVI additionally visited the United States, touring in April 2008. During that journey, he marked his 81st birthday on April 16 on the White House with President George W. Bush, and he later visited New York, together with a time of prayer at Ground Zero in remembrance of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults.

The most up-to-date pope to go to the United States was Pope Francis, who traveled there from Sept. 22–27, 2015. During the go to, he went to Washington, D.C., the place he canonized Junípero Serra and addressed the U.S. Congress. He then traveled to New York, talking on the United Nations General Assembly, earlier than concluding the journey in Philadelphia, the place he presided over occasions marking the shut of the Eighth World Meeting of Families.