Pope Francis will receive German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel in private audience on June 17, 2017, confirmed the Holy See Press Office.
It will be their third private meeting, after that of May 18, 2013, during which they stressed the values and responsibility of Europe in the world, and that of February 21, 2015, where the issue was “the fight against poverty and hunger; the exploitation of human beings and women’s rights; the challenges of global health and the protection of Creation.”
Pope Francis and Angela Merkel, who has headed Germany since 2005, also met at other times: during the opening Mass of his Pontificate on March 19, 2013; at the awarding of the Charlemagne Prize to the Argentine Pope on May 6, 2016; and again recently, during the audience to European leaders on March 24, 2017, in the framework of the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome.
