• By Mayukh Debnath
  • Sat, 15 Jun 2024 12:20 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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PM Modi Meets Pope Francis: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the ongoing G7 Summit in Italy's Apulia region. Both were seen sharing a light-hearted moment ahead of the annual summit's Outreach Session. PM Modi also extended the pontiff an invitation to visit India.

"I admire his (Pope Francis's) commitment to serve people and make our planet better. Also invited him to visit India," PM Modi said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Visuals from the Outreach Session's venue also showed PM Modi exchanging a hug with the wheelchair-bound octogenarian pope.

Pope Francis India Invite: Past Papal Visits

This is not the first time that PM Modi has invited Pope Francis for a papal visit to India. In 2021, during a visit to Vatican City, PM Modi extended an invitation to the current pope to visit India. The invitation was even promptly accepted by Pope Francis. However, it never culminated in a papal visit.

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The last pope to visit India was John Paul II, who visited New Delhi in 1999 to issue a papal document on the Church in Asia. The Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar St Vincent Catholic Church, John Barwa, expressed happiness after PM Modi and Pope Francis's interaction.

"We say that this relationship of our PM and our holy father Pope will continue and will bring us a close relationship with each other...We are extremely happy and glad that our Prime minister is meeting our holy Father Pope," Barwa was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

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Pope Francis's At G7 Summit

Pope Francis played a major role at the Outreach Session of this year's G7 Summit by leading a discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI). With this, he became the first head of the Catholic Church to address a G7 Summit. PM Modi also addressed the session and spoke on a variety of issues, including AI, energy and the need to ensure fair representation to Africa on multilateral platforms.

(With inputs from agencies)