Pope meets with Martinelli, announces he's coming to Panama

Pontiff and president. Photo courtesy of the Presidencia

Martinelli has an audience with the Pope

Pope Benedict XVI says he'll visit Panama in 2013

On September 11 President Ricardo Martinelli visited Pope John Paul II's grave in the Vatican and then met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Gandolfo Castle outside Rome, where Martinelli invited the pontiff to visit Panama.

The pope accepted, saying that he will come here in 2013, on the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the first church on the mainland of the Americas, at Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien. That church, which no longer exists, was begun in 1510 and finished in 1513.

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