Pope Francis and Sebastián Piñera met for an hour at the Vatican

Pope Francis received this Thursday the Chilean President, Sebastián Piñera, for an hour in a private audience, in which it was the second meeting of both in the Vatican and within the European tour of the Latin American president.

After the meeting between the two, which took place in the papal palace, Piñera met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, Vatican sources indicated.

The Chilean president, who arrived at the Vatican accompanied by the foreign minister, Andres Allamand, and the Chilean ambassador to the Holy See, Octavio Errázuriz, then went to the Vatican Gardens to visit the place where last June the mosaic dedicated to the Virgen del Carmen.

It is a work the artist Frances Claro, made with stones collected throughout the territory and which was blessed in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, Governor of the State of Vatican City, and Cardinal Celestino Aós, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, who blessed the image, and the Auxiliary Bishop, Alberto Lorenzelli.

Pope Francis and Piñera at the meeting they had in 2018

During the gift exchange between Pope Francis and Piñera, the president gave the Argentine pontiff a chess board made with combarbalite, a semi-precious rock, unique in the world, which abounds in Combarbalá, in the north of Chile.

While the Pope gave Piñera a tile engraved with the image of Saint Peter and his writings during this pontificate, as well as the last message of Peace.

This second meeting between Francisco and Piñera follows the one they held on October 13, 2018, which was marked above all by the scandal of cases of pedophilia and cover-up in the Chilean clergy. A visit that occurred just after the Pope’s trip to Chile on January 15-18, 2018.

On this occasion, Piñera had on the agenda to speak with the Pope the fight against the pandemic, but also to advance the agenda for combat climate change with the policies promoted during the Chilean Presidency of COP-25 and the preparation of COP-26 in Glasgow, where Francisco is expected to participate in person.