Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi confirmed reports on Tuesday that Pope Francis will visit Mexico next year. The trip will include a visit to the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine, Lombardi said, though no other plans are confirmed yet.
Father Manuel Dorantes, the Spanish-speaking media liaison for the press office of the Holy See, tweeted about the planned trip on Tuesday:
Francis has expressed a desire to visit the country in the past and even considered entering the U.S. from Mexico during his September trip in a sign of solidarity with immigrants.
The pontiff touched on issues of immigrations frequently during his trip to the United States in September. When he spoke to Americans from outside of the White House on Sept. 23, the pope said, "As the son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families."
No specific dates or programs are set for the 2016 trip, but The Guardian reports that the pontiff is expected to visit an area of the border where undocumented immigrants try to cross into the U.S.
Francis had planned to visit his native Argentina as well as Uruguay and Chile next year, AP reports, but it is not clear if that trip will still take place. The only other trip he has planned for 2016, so far, is to Krakow, Poland for World Youth Day.
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