ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) – Pope Francis said Monday he hopes to visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay this year, as well as the Central African Republic and Uganda.
The 2015 trips, still in their planning stages and not confirmed, would come on top of his planned three-city visit to the United States in September.
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Francis said the audience was rejected as a matter of Vatican protocol. “The reason was not a refusal of the person or fear of China,” he said.
China severed relations with the Holy See in 1951 after the communists took over. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and now Francis have sought to mend ties.
