Pope Francis met with Peru's foreign minister at the Vatican.
-Thank you for your visit.
-On the contrary. I bring the apology of President Pedro Castillo.
Foreign minister César Landa traveled on the Peruvian president's behalf after his request to leave the country for a trip through Europe was denied.
Landa and the Peruvian ambassador to the Holy See gave the Pope an image of the “little doctor,” an image of the child Jesus St. Rose, Peru's patron saint, was said to speak to.
-It's said that St. Rose was able to speak to the child Jesus, and she received many sick people in her home. She cured them with the recommendations of her “little doctor.”
-I didn't know that.
During the minister's trip to the Vatican, a document was signed to repatriate to Peru three Incan mummies that have been held in the Vatican's Ethnological Museum since 1925.
CÉSAR RODRIGO LANDA
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru
They were given for a universal exhibition held by the Vatican at the beginning of the previous century, and then they were left. But some years ago it became known, and thanks to the willingness of the Vatican to return them, as is right, this has been realized.
The return of the mummies could set a precedent for returning items in the Vatican museums to their countries of origin, although this instance is unique in that it pertains to items gifted by a government on loan, and consists of human remains.
CÉSAR RODRIGO LANDA
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru
More than just objects these are human beings. They are human remains that should be buried or placed with value and dignity where they came from, which are the Peruvian Andes.
Foreign minister Landa shared that he also discussed the country's political situation with the leaders of the Vatican's Secretariat of State, and said that Peru's president hopes to travel to Rome and meet with the Pope in the near future.
JM
