Pope Leo XIV to visit five Rome parishes during Advent

Pope Leo XIV will visit five parishes of the Diocese of Rome between November 27 and December 20, 2026, one in each of the pastoral sectors into which the local Church is divided. The Vicariate of Rome, the office that governs the diocese on the pope's behalf, has published the full schedule for the Advent visits, which resume the practice he followed during Lent. The visits will take place in the afternoon. Each will follow the same pattern: a welcome by Cardinal Baldo Reina, the pope's vicar for Rome, by the auxiliary bishop of the sector and by the pastor; a meeting with parish councils and parish groups; and the celebration of the Eucharist.

The announcement comes two weeks after the pope's October 13 surgery at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, where surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung after an adenocarcinoma was detected there. He was discharged on October 17, and on October 26 the Holy See Press Office said tests carried out after the operation confirmed that the disease was localized and that no further cancer treatment is needed. His trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru went ahead as planned, from November 6 to 17.

The schedule of five visits

The first stop will be on Friday, November 27, at Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, in the Center sector, on the feast of the Miraculous Medal. The second is set for Sunday, November 29, at San Carlo da Sezze, in Acilia, in the South sector. On December 6 the pope will go to Sant'Eligio, in Lunghezza, in the East sector, and on December 13 to Santa Lucia, in the Della Vittoria district, West sector. On December 20 he will close the series at San Roberto Bellarmino, on Piazza Ungheria in the Parioli neighborhood, North sector. Apart from the first, which falls on a Friday, the other four fall on the Sundays of Advent.

Pastoral visits with a review built in

Reina said the visits are not only a gesture of pastoral closeness but also include an element of internal review. "Through these parishes, our whole diocese is celebrating. We will use these visits of the Holy Father to do what he himself told us at the assembly at the beginning of the year: to carry out a pastoral review within our communities."

At the assembly held on September 18 at St. John Lateran, Leo XIV asked the diocese to stop, look again at what it has done, distinguish what has borne fruit from what has not worked and understand why, "to face the truth," in his own words. He said that a parish where everything depends on the pastor is a weak parish, and he pointed to the 2033 Jubilee of the Redemption as the horizon of the process. The meetings with parish councils planned at each stop are where that work is meant to become visible.

Sant'Andrea delle Fratte: the story of a conversion

The first community to receive the pope is entrusted to the friars of the Order of Minims. The parish is linked to the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne, an Alsatian Jew who, visiting Rome almost by chance in 1842, said he had seen the Virgin Mary in one of the church's chapels. The parochial vicar, Father Taras Yeher, said that since May the parish has been running a mission to get to know an unusual territory, populated mainly by people who work in the city center but do not live there. The parish has named the initiative "Mary visits us."

"In this case, besides the Virgin, the Holy Father is visiting us too," he said. Receiving the pope on the feast of the Miraculous Medal, he said, "is an even greater gift from the Lord and from the Virgin."

San Carlo da Sezze: the pastor asked for it

At San Carlo da Sezze, in Acilia, the visit came about at the pastor's request. "To tell the truth, I had asked the cardinal vicar to invite Pope Leo to our parish," Father Simone Giovannella said, "because next year we will celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the dedication."

Giovannella described a community with a long tradition of support for young people and the poor, and with large numbers of young people still involved. He said it "will really be a super celebration." "I am immensely grateful for this gift," he said.

Sant'Eligio and Santa Lucia: a need to be confirmed in the faith

The pastor of Sant'Eligio, in Lunghezza, Father Dario Frattini, called the announcement "unexpected news" and described the visit as "a gift for our community, for the moment we are living through; there is a need to be confirmed in the faith." Receiving that "pat on the shoulder," the visit of the pastor and bishop of Rome, "is an immense joy," he said.

At Santa Lucia, the pope will arrive on December 13, the parish's patronal feast. The pastor, Father Simone Carosi, who has been in the post only a few months, joked about how close the parish is to the Vatican: "To reach us, the Holy Father will not have to travel far." Celebrating with him, he said, seems "a truly beautiful welcome gift."

San Roberto Bellarmino closes the series

The last stop, San Roberto Bellarmino on Piazza Ungheria in Parioli, also has a newly arrived pastor, Father Andrea Lonardo, whom the community welcomed a few months ago. The parochial vicar, Father Antonio Panico, said "the gift of our bishop's visit will undoubtedly be an occasion of joy and a moment of ecclesial communion," and said he was convinced the pope's visit "will be a source of grace and celebration" for the whole community.

Papal visits to Roman parishes

St. John Paul II visited 301 of the diocese's 333 parishes. Benedict XVI reduced that to two visits a year, one in Advent and one in Lent. Francis made about 20 visits in the first six years of his pontificate.

Changes in the diocesan structure

The division into pastoral sectors has its own recent history. The diocese's five sectors dated from the time of Paul VI. Francis abolished the Center sector in 2024, and Leo XIV restored it in November 2025. On February 25 of this year he appointed four new auxiliary bishops, all of them Roman pastors, and ordained them on May 2 at St. John Lateran. He also ordered a rewrite of the apostolic constitution In Ecclesiarum communione, which Francis used to reorganize the Vicariate in 2023. Reina's decree on pastoral areas has largely returned the Vicariate to the structure that preceded Francis's reform.

The map of this Advent series differs in part from the one Leo XIV followed during Lent, when he visited five parishes between February 15 and March 15. Those were mostly communities on the outskirts and in working-class districts. The Advent itinerary combines the same outskirts, Acilia and Lunghezza, both outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare, Rome's ring road, with a shrine a few yards from the Piazza di Spagna and two parishes in wealthier parts of the city.