POPE Francis will have an entourage of 32 people, including top Filipino clergymen, when he leads the concluding Mass of his four-day apostolic journey to the Philippines in Luneta on Jan. 18.
Francis will be joined by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said Pasig Bishop Mylo Vergara, chairman of the Committee on Information and Media Relations.
Vergara announced the names of the first 14 people joining Francis in Luneta, in a press conference Monday.
Also part of the papal entourage are Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, the apostolic nuncio, and two counselors of the nunciature.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin; Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu of the Secretariat of State; Msgr. Mark Miles, official of the Secretariat of State; and Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, are also expected in the entourage.
Also joining the Pope are papal visit chief organizer Alberto Gasbarri, L’Osservatore Romano editor in chief Giovanni Maria Vian, and Patrizio Polisca, personal doctor of the Pope.
The rest of the entourage will be composed of Vatican radio personnel, members of the Vatican press, and Swiss guards. Angeli Mae S. Cantillana and April Joy E. Dy
