Tag Archives: foreign trips

Francis, Who Turns 85 On Friday, Easily Becomes The 2nd Most Travelled Pope In History — After John Paul II.

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by Anura Guruge
on December 14, 2021

Click to ENLARGE.
Click to ENLARGE.
Click to ENLARGE.
Click to ENLARGE. I created this using maps from Wikipedia.

To be fair, this wasn’t a hard record to achieve. As yesterday’s post highlighted papal travel, outside of Italy, is quite a recent phenomenon — pioneered by Paul VI in the 1960s.

Then John Paul II took it to new heights. He made papal travel commonplace. Given his lengthy tenure, 26.4 years, during which he travelled during each FULL year of his papacy, his record is going to hard to beat.

Benedict XVI, as you can see from the figure above, was not a great traveler. He tried to keep his travels short — never undertaking a trip with more than 5 stops. John Paul II, in 1983, made a trip with 11 stops. Paul VI’s last trip, in 1970, had 9 stops. Francis, in 2019, did a 7 stop trip. So, of the last 3 popes, in terms of tenure, Benedict XVI has been the pope least travelled. [You may come across references that say he only made 24 trips to 28 countries. That is wrong. San Marino, that he visited in 2011, is NOT a part of Italy!]

Note that Francis, though he has visited Latin America multiple times, has yet to visit his motherland, Argentina.

In marked contrast, Benedict XVI visited Germany 3 times; John Paul II Poland 9 times. In both instances they visited their motherland more times than any other country. They also both managed to make it home during the first year of their papacy. Ironically, Francis’ first visit, during his first year, was to Brazil which borders Argentina.

Last Year, Due To COVID, Was The First Year In 42, That A Pope Did NOT Make An Overseas Trip.

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by Anura Guruge
on December 13, 2021

Click to ENLARGE.
Click to ENLARGE. I created this using maps from Wikipedia.

How you react to this (or let it even register with you) will depend BOTH on your age & familiarity with papal history.

42 years mean, quite literally, two full generations. Yes, that means we now have two generations of folks, worldwide, independent of religion, who take it for GRANTED that popes travel. They are so used to seeing images of popes all over the globe, kissing the ground & holding Masses attended by hundreds of thousands.

But, if they ONLY knew how recent this all has been.

Between 1814 and 1964, i.e., 151 years, NO pope set foot outside of Italy. Just ponder that. 151 years between 1814 & 1964. This 1814 date, however, needs elaboration. The pope, Pius VII [1800 — 1823], was NOT outside Italy, in 1814, by choice! He was being held a prisoner, in France, by Napoleon. Pius VII did attend Napoleon’s wedding, by choice, in France, in 1804. So, that was the last time, prior to Paul VI, that a pope had left Italy by choice. So, we need to make a distinction between 1804 & 1814. First was by choice, the other wasn’t.

Prior to 1804 travel outside Italy had been quite rare & often undertaken under duress rather than by choice.

It was Paul VI, who became pope in 1963, that started this trend of popes travelling the globe. Paul VI travelled extensively between 1964 and 1970. In 1970 he had a 11 day trip covering 11 countries. That is a record, i.e., 11 countries on one trip. During that trip there was an attempt made on his life, in the Philippines, on day 3 of the trip. Paul VI was a trooper. He did NOT let this curtail his trip. He completed it. But, he did NOT make any further foreign trips THOUGH he would continue to reign for another 8 years.

Not so with his successors, bar poor the 33-day only John Paul I.

Even John Paul II, despite his infirmities in his later years, continued to travel abroad, year year, without fail, till the end.

Hence, the interrupted 42-year record until last year — & COVID.

42 years, uninterrupted, was quite the record. Don’t scoff at it.

In 2021 we, of course, had to reset the clock. Now, the popes will have to maintain an unbroken sequence of yearly overseas travel till 2063 before the current record is overtaken.