UPDATE1 / Pope in Romania / Sovereign Pontiff arrives in Bucharest

Pope Francis has arrived in Bucharest on Friday for a state, pastoral and ecumenical three-day visit, carried out under the generic title "Let's walk together!." The Sovereign Pontiff was welcome, on the Henri Coanda International Airport, by President Klaus Iohannis and his wife Carmen Iohannis. He was honoured by a military guard. The Pope is accompanied by Cardinals Pietro Parolin - Secretary of State, Kurt Koch - President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Giovanni Angelo Becciu, head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. Pope Francis was also welcome by Apostolic Nuncio in Romania Miguel Maury Buendia and members of the Conference of Bishops of Romania, headed by Monsignor Ioan Robu, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bucharest. Metropolitan Nifon, Archbishop of Targoviste, delegate of the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) Patriarch Daniel, also participated in the ceremony. A group of pilgrims, waving flags with the Vatican symbols on one side and the Romanian tricolour on the other sang Marian songs. The pilgrims, accompanied by their parish priests, chanted "Welcome, Pope Francis!," "Vivat Papam!". The Sovereign Pontiff received a little bunch of flowers from two children, Diana and Octavian Visa, great-grandchildren of Augustin Visa (1904 - 1989), a Greek-Catholic theologist, who was a political prisoner during the Antonescu and the communist regimes, a lawyer and doctor in law, high official at CEC, member of the National Peasant Party from 1927 and chair of the National-Peasant Intellectual Youth from 1936. From the airport, the Pope will go to the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, where the official welcome ceremony will take place on the Marinescu Plateau. President Iohannis and Pope Francis will have head-to-head talks. Afterwards, the Sovereign Pontiff will have a meeting with PM Viorica Dancila, as well as with authorities, civil society and diplomatic corps representatives, at the Cotroceni Palace as well. The Romanian head of state and the Pope will deliver a speech. Pope Francis has come to Romania 20 years after the historic visit paid by Pope John Paul II to Bucharest, the first of a Sovereign Pontiff to a country of an Orthodox majority. In the after-noon, Pope Francis will meet the leaders of the Romanian Orthodox Church, will go to the National Cathedral, after which he will lead the Holy Liturgy at the Saint Joseph Roman-Catholic Cathedral. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Popescu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - editor: Adina Panaitescu)