Pope Francis prepared to go face to face with his predecessor Benedict XVI on Saturday in a historic meeting between two men with very different styles but important core similarities.
The Argentine pope was expected to take a helicopter from the Vatican landing at around later on Saturday at the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome where the “pope emeritus” has been living since his resignation last month.
The meeting between a pope and a former pope is believed to be a first for the Catholic Church as Latin America’s first pontiff embarks on a papacy fraught with challenges that sometimes overshadowed Benedict’s reign.
Benedict has been staying at the lakeside estate since he became the first pope to resign in more than 700 years and the Vatican said he followed television news coverage of Francis’s momentous conclave election last week.
The Vatican has said the meeting is private and the content of talks between the 76-year-old Argentine and the 85-year-old German will remain secret.
The two are expected to both wear their white papal vestments. The two are expected to have lunch for talks lasting until around 1300 GMT.