Pope Francis' first visit to S'pore has been 8 years in the making

Senior Social Affairs Correspondent The upcoming visit by Pope Francis to Singapore is one that has been eight years in the making.

- Theresa Tan

The quest to bring the head of the Catholic Church and spiritual leader of over 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide started in May 2016, when then president Tony Tan invited the Pope to visit Singapore during his state visit to the Vatican.

Over the years, various government leaders and officials kept up efforts to realise that invitation, Ms Janet Ang, Singapore's non-resident ambassador to the Vatican since 2020, told The Sunday Times.

For example, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met the Pope in 2019 and Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) Edwin Tong did so in January 2022, with both extending the same invitation Dr Tan made in 2016.

In January 2020, Ms Ang received news that Pope Francis finally said yes to visiting Singapore that September, but those plans had to be postponed when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and upended the world.