While flying through Chinese airspace on his way to Mongolia on Friday, Pope Francis sent a telegram with “greetings of good wishes” to President Xi Jinping of China and the people of that nation, according to the Vatican.
“Assuring you of my prayers for the well-being of the nation, I invoke upon all of you the divine blessings of unity and peace,” wrote the pope, following pontifical custom to acknowledge those countries whose airspace he has entered.
The 86-year-old pontiff’s trip to the Buddhist-majority nation Mongolia is a gesture of support for the tiny community of Catholics numbering about 1,400.
