A government delegation led by Home Affairs Minister Alain Berset will receive the pope and hold official talks with him, the government confirmed to the Swiss News Agency on Wednesday.
The most recent papal visit to Switzerland was in 2004, when Pope John Paul II came to Bern a year before he died. Almost 70,000 attended the Mass which he held in German. John Paul II had previously visited various international organisations in Geneva in 1982.
Some 38% of the Swiss population identifies as Roman Catholic, while about 27% of Swiss residents belong to the Protestant church. A special group of Swiss soldiers known as the Pontifical Swiss Guard is tasked with protecting the pope.
Pope Francis, who comes from Argentina, is the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years. He was named to the top position at the Vatican in March 2013, taking over from Pope Benedict XVI.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Pope Francis welcomes Swiss president to Vatican
This content was published on
Schneider-Ammann spoke to the Pope of Switzerland’s willingness to help remedy the problems that are causing refugees to flee countries in crisis. The costs of helping people in their own countries are smaller than the costs of caring for migrants in Europe, he said. At a press conference following the meeting, the Swiss president emphasised…
This content was published on
Following the example set by Pope Francis in his desire for a more open Church, the Swiss Guard has opened its most private moments to the world through the lens of photographer Fabio Mantegna. The exhibition exposes the private life of the guards behind the Vatican walls – a life rarely seen by the public.…
This content was published on
Conducted by the Swiss Pastoral Sociological Institute (SPI) in late 2013, the survey was completed by 23,636 churchgoers. Of these, 95% lived in Switzerland, 92% were Catholic and 53% were women. Their average age was 54. The questions, posed by Pope Francis, were designed to help the Catholic Church get a better idea of the…
This content was published on
Bishops’ Conference spokesperson Simon Spengler told swissinfo.ch that the challenges of managing the modern church’s affairs have grown increasingly demanding, both physically and psychologically, in an age of deepening global crises, constant communication and shifting values. “To hold everything together and try to do a good job is incredibly demanding,” Spengler said. “It’s not just…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.