Pope Francis Agrees To First Papal Visit To India Since 1999
NDTV
The Foreign Ministry said the invitation was for Pope Francis "to visit India at an early date, which was accepted with pleasure".
Pope Francis has accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit, in a turnaround in relations with the Vatican following the failure of negotiations for a papal trip to the country in 2017.
There are about 20 million Roman Catholics in India, about 1.5 per cent of the population of 1.3 billion.
In 2016, Pope Francis said he was "almost sure" of visiting India the following year along with Bangladesh. But Indian Catholic Church leaders failed to convince PM Modi to invite him.
The last pope to visit India was John Paul II, who went to New Delhi in 1999 to issue a papal document on the Church in Asia.
