The agenda of Francis’ international journeys in 2019 just added up a new stage: Morocco. The Pope will visit the cities of Casablanca and Rabat, home of the Apostolic Nunciature since 1976.

The director of the Vatican Press Office, Greg Burke, announced it in a brief communiqué in which he explained that the visit is in response to an invitation extended by King Mohammed VI, sovereign respected at a global level by Muslim leaders and other religions for his positions open to dialogue, who on several occasions publicly expressed his esteem for the Argentine Pontiff. “The program of the trip will be published in due time”, the Vatican note informs without providing further details.

This is the second time that a Pontiff has visited Morocco, 33 years after the journey of John Paul II in August 1985, at the invitation of the then King Hassan II, with whom an exchange of letters on the legal situation of the Catholic Church in Morocco had taken place in December two years earlier (1983). Wojtyla’s presence in the country marked an effective reconnection of relations between the Holy See and the Moroccan authorities and favored the opening of a permanent dialogue between Christians and Muslims carried out especially by the new generations.

This is also the second time that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has visited a North African country with an Islamic majority, after his trip to Egypt in April 2017, the result of the “thaw” between the Vatican and the prestigious Sunni university of Al-Azhar. As in the case of Egypt, also Morocco sees the direction of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue - led temporarily by Secretary Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, after the death of Cardinal President Jean-Louis Tauran - who, in collaboration with Nuncio Vito Rallo, has prepared the ground through various events and initiatives that, in recent months, have involved imams and ambassadors from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa and also Christian representatives.

In particular we should remember the day on the theme “Believers and citizens in a changing world” held in Rabat on 3 May 2018 in the presence of some lecturers from the Pontifical Universities, and promoted by the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Interreligious Department to seal the dialogue between Christians and Muslims – which shall be continued - the final declaration said - “with patience and wisdom, because it is not optional, but it is a necessity for peace, security and the well-being of societies”. On the same occasion, an important agreement was signed between the Holy See and Rabita Mohammedia, an important organization of Ulema - experts in religious sciences, close to the king - in order to hold biennial meetings on topics chosen by common agreement.

The Pope’s trip in March 2019 will therefore be a new opportunity to strengthen this already initiated dialogue between the Catholic Church and Islam and to encourage Morocco’s small Catholic community: little more than 27,000 faithful according to statistics, on a population of 34 million inhabitants (about 0.08%).

Previously the Pope had already visited Africa in November 2015 going to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Francis might return to the Black Continent next year for the - announced, yet not confirmed - visit to Madagascar and Mozambique. The trips to the Africa would add up to the one already planned for the end of January in Panama on the occasion of World Youth Day and the trips - also under study by the Holy See - to Japan and Romania. Without forgetting the possibility of a trip to Korea.