President heading to Popes enthronement in Rome

President Ricardo Martinelii, announced Saturday, March 16 that he is heading to Rome on Sunday for the Tuesday enthronement mass of Pope Francisco.

He made the announcement at the opening of the 54th Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in Panama City. Martinelli said he would not be around for the closure of the meeting.

Martinelli was happy last Wednesday at news of the election of a Latin American as pope and announced that he will invite the pontiff to visit Panama.

"I'm very happy that the new pope is Latin America, the region where most Catholics are" Martinelli told the Efe News agency. "Now I'm more than sure that we will make the invitation I will travel to Rome and will personally invite him," he said.
The Panamanian government had invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit Panama this year, when the country celebrates the fifth centenary of the establishment of the first Catholic diocese on the mainland, which coincides with the Ibero-American Summit, the Congress of the Spanish Language and the fifth centenary of the discovery of the South Sea.