Pope in Slovakia to honor Holocaust dead on Day 2 of tour

Pope Francis is opening his visit to Slovakia by meeting with the president ahead of an encounter with the country’s Jewish community

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Pope Francis opened his first full day in Slovakia on Monday by meeting with the country's president ahead of an encounter with the country’s Jewish community to honor its Holocaust dead and atone for Catholic complicity in World War II-era racial laws and crimes. Francis arrived at the presidential palace looking well and rested on the second day of his four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia that marks his first international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July. In a message to the Slovak people written in the palace book of honor, Francis wrote that he came as a pilgrim to Bratislava and was praying that the country may be a “message of fraternity and peace in the heart of Europe." After a rigorous day in Budapest on Sunday, Francis, 84, spends Monday in Bratislava where the highlight of his visit is an afternoon encounter at the capital’s Holocaust memorial, built on the site of a synagogue destroyed by the communist regime in the 1960s.