P.apa Francesco does it every time he travels by plane. Send a special message to the head of state of each nation it flies on en route to its destination. And he has done so recently too, traveling to Canada and sending words of comfort to Queen Elizabethcurrently on vacation in Balmoral, Scotland.
Queen Elizabeth receives greetings from Pope Francis
Flying over the skies of London on his way to Canada, Pope Francis will not have been able to help but think about the current circumstances of Queen Elizabeth who, at the age of 96, is facing a period of crisis and scandals at court. The papal message reads: «I send my best wishes to your Majesty, to the members of the Royal family and to all the subjects of the realm. I pray God to bless you with gifts of strength, joy and peace ».
Elizabeth Ii with Pope Francis in 2014 (GettyImages)
The Platinum Jubilee Tree
Addressed to “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace, London”, the papal message follows the one sent by the Vatican to the sovereign of England last March, on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee.
The greeting letter was accompanied by a tree – a precious cedar from Lebanon – for the initiative Green Canopy started by Elizabeth herself and which led to the planting of over a million trees on British territory.
One of Elizabeth’s encounters with John Paul II, Vatican, October 2000 (GettyImages)
The “Catholic” commitment of the Anglican sovereign
Pope Francis welcomed the queen to Rome in 2014, a year after her appointment. Elizabeth, head of the Anglican Church, has always been in favor of a close relationship with her Catholic counterpart, demonstrating this already in October 1980, when she became the first British monarch to go on a state visit to the Vatican. Two years later she welcomed John Paul II to Buckingham Palace.
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