Pope Francis traveled to Loreto
in the Marche region on Monday, where, after morning Mass, he
signed the apostolic exhortation following last October's synod
on youth.
The town is home to the Basilica of the Holy House, a shrine
of Marian pilgrimage housing the famous "Black Madonna", and
this was Pope Francis's first visit there.
The pope gave a speech in which he emphasised the "importance
and essential mission" of the "family founded on marriage
between a man and a woman".
Following the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the pope
boarded an uncovered popemobile to greet the faithful in the
main square.
He is to lunch with bishops and then fly back to Rome by
helicopter.
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