Pope Francis, in Corsica, warns against religion that stokes divisions

Ajaccio, France: Pope Francis urged Catholic priests on Sunday to guard against spiritual groups that stoke political divisions, speaking during a one-day visit to Corsica, the first by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean island.

At a conference on religion in the Mediterranean region, the pontiff warned against varieties of spirituality that "seek self-aggrandisement by fuelling polemics, narrow-mindedness, divisions and exclusivist attitudes".

"The Church's pastors (are) called to be vigilant, to exercise discernment and to be constantly attentive to (these) popular forms of religiosity," the pope said.

Francis, making his third and probably last foreign trip of 2024, did not name any specific religious groups.

Corsica has a long history of lay Catholic associations, known as confraternities. They usually focus on spiritual matters but sometimes play a role in local politics.

The pope spent about nine hours in Ajaccio, Corsica's capital. After attending the conference, he celebrated an outdoor Mass with what the Vatican estimated was a crowd of 15,000 Catholics. He also met French President Emmanuel Macron.

Visiting places that often do not draw international attention is part of the pope's policy of highlighting people and problems in what he calls the "peripheries" of the world.

In the course of his 11-year papacy Francis has still not visited most of the capitals of Western Europe, including Paris.

Macron had invited Francis to attend the Dec. 7 reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after a devastating fire nearly destroyed the medieval building. The pope decided not to go, and the two instead met briefly at Ajaccio airport on Sunday.

Francis thanked Macron for making the visit to Corsica to see him. Macron, who took the pope by the hand during a routine diplomatic gift exchange, said it was a "great honour" to come.

In a departure from the usual protocol, the pope did not take questions from journalists on the return flight. The director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni, said that was because of the short length of the trip from Ajaccio to Rome.

Pope turns 88 on Tuesday

Francis, who turns 88 on Tuesday, left his plane on arrival in Corsica via an elevator and used a wheelchair while greeting officials on the tarmac, as is now normal when he travels.

During a brief ride in an open-air popemobile from the airport, the pope waved at crowds on the street and appeared on good form. He still had a small bruise on his chin, the result of what the Vatican described as a minor fall in his bedroom earlier this month.

Corsica, famed for mountainous terrain and as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean. It is one of France's poorest regions and about 20 per cent of the population of 356,000 lives below the poverty line, according to government figures.

The Vatican estimates that about 81 per cent of Corsica's population is Catholic.

Francis, originally from Argentina and the first pope from the Americas, has travelled widely around the Mediterranean since becoming pontiff in 2013, visiting Malta, the Greek island of Lesbos, and the Italian island of Lampedusa.