It was past noon on Thursday, November 21, when François Bustillo stepped into the courtyard of the bishop's palace in Ajaccio. This was the big moment. The moment when the Corsican bishop was expected to finally announce officially that Pope Francis would be coming to Corsica in December. And then he didn't. "This is an important day for us," began the cardinal. "We're talking about the pope's visit. I can tell you that the project is real. The pope should come." Always the same caution in official speeches, which quickly disappears in private discussions. Why? "A few administrative and diplomatic adjustments," explained Bustillo. He was still waiting for the official go-ahead from the Vatican and, above all, the Elysée Palace. After all, the pontiff remains a head of state, and an official invitation from France must be issued to him.
It was not until Saturday, November 23, at midday that the trip was officially confirmed by the Vatican. For his third trip to France, after Strasbourg in 2014 and Marseille in 2023, Pope Francis will indeed visit Corsica – a historic first for the island, which has never received a visit from a pope – to attend a conference on "popular religiosity" in the Mediterranean region.
The announcement put an end to several weeks of suspense, meetings and more or less hidden telephone calls. The time had come for three intense weeks of preparations for what is already shaping up to be an exceptional event, eagerly awaited by Corsica's entire Catholic community.
The visit was something of an open secret. A Vatican delegation, led by the Apostolic Nuncio Celestino Migliore, visited the site on November 14 and 15, to assess the security of the premises. Some 40 people, including officials from French government, the Ajaccio diocese and the municipality, had carried out a scouting mission to outline a program that was forwarded to the Vatican last weekend for validation. Cardinal Bustillo, the bishop of Ajaccio, was even ready to make the big announcement last Saturday, after a mass in Bastia, but the Vatican's timetable did not allow it.
The plans were eventually validated by the pope's security services on Tuesday. The highlight of the trip will be his visit to the Casone, a tree-lined esplanade in Ajaccio, overlooked by the statue of Napoleon Bonaparte and able to accommodate some 8,000 worshipers, where the pope will celebrate an open-air mass. This choice, for its symbolic significance, was defended tooth and nail by the city, in particular by the first deputy mayor, Alexandre Farina, the city hall's point person for the pope's visit.
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