An official invitation for Pope Leo XIV to visit the Caribbean region, led by the government of Trinidad and Tobago in partnership with the Archdiocese of Port of Spain, has been formally delivered to Vatican authorities, according to Roman Catholic Archbishop Fr Jason Gordon. The invitation was submitted during Gordon’s recent trip to Rome for the Antilles Episcopal Conference, a gathering that opened discussions about a potential papal trip to the island nation and the wider Caribbean.
In comments provided to Catholic News following the conference, Gordon confirmed that formal documentation of the invitation has been shared with key Vatican offices: a copy was handed directly to the Vatican Secretary of State by Gordon himself, while an additional official version was delivered to the papal nuncio, the Holy See’s diplomatic representative to the region.
Thus far, Vatican officials have not closed the door on the visit, Gordon explained. When the invitation was raised during discussions with the Secretary of State, the proposal was acknowledged and received respectfully, with no outright rejection of the plan. “We just have to wait, and pray and see,” Gordon said of the ongoing process, adding that outcome remains uncertain but hopeful. “He did not turn it down and not only that he listened.”
If the visit moves forward, it would mark the first papal trip to the Caribbean in nearly 40 years. The last pope to visit the region was John Paul II, who added a stop in Trinidad and Tobago to the end of his 25th apostolic journey through South America in 1985, following visits to Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. During that historic stop on February 5, 1985, Pope John Paul II delivered a homily to worshippers in Port of Spain that highlighted the spiritual meaning embedded in the nation’s name, which references the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity. “Permit me to begin, dear brothers and sisters, by venerating the Most Holy Trinity, whose name your country bears: Trinidad and Tobago,” he told the gathering. “Glory to you, O Trinity!”
The potential visit comes as Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the first pope to hold both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship, has been making high-profile international appearances in recent weeks. Over the weekend, an Associated Press report confirmed that more than one million people gathered in Madrid to attend a Mass presided over by the new pope, where he called on European nations to honor Christianity’s foundational role in shaping the continent’s shared cultural identity and celebrated Spain’s centuries-long tradition of religious faith.