Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Pope Francis to India after a one-on-one meeting in Vatican City on October 30.
PM Modi was accompanied by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
The meeting was scheduled for 20 minutes but went on for an hour, reported Press Trust of India, a news agency reported.
"Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India," said a tweet from PM Modi's personal account.
PM Modi and the Pope discussed a wide range of issues aimed at making our planet better, such as fighting climate change and removing poverty, sources said.
"It may be recalled that the last Papal Visit happened in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and Pope John Paul II came to India. Now it is during PM Modi's Prime Ministerial term that the Pope has been invited to visit India," sources said.
The meeting assumes significance as it comes at a time when Christians in many parts of the country have been complaining of harassment and attacks on the community and its institutions.
The meeting took place ahead of the delegation-level talks, during which they are expected to discuss a range of issues such as COVID-19.
PM Modi is on a two-day visit to Rome for the G20 Summit at the invitation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
A day before the meeting, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that there was no set agenda for the talks with the Pope.
“I believe tradition is not to have an agenda when you discuss issues with His Holiness. And I think we respect that. I'm sure the issues that will be covered would cover a range of areas of interests in terms of the general global perspectives and issues that are important to all of us," said the Foreign Secretary.
John Paul II, who is now a saint, had earlier visited India in 1986. During the "Apostolic Pilgrimage to India," the Pope travelled around 20,000 kilometres to 14 cities across India.
Pope Paul VI was the first leader of the Catholic Church to visit India when he came to Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1964 to attend the International Eucharistic Congress.
Christians are the third largest religious community in India. According to Census 2011, they form 2.3 per cent of the population, behind Hindus (79.8%) and Muslims (14.2%).
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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