Rome_ Pope Francis is visiting today the northern cities of Milan and Monza, during which he will participate in seven official activities in just 10 hours and a half, Prensa Latina reports.

This is the first time that the Supreme Pontiff frequents the capital of the region of Lombardy, where his predecessor, Benedict XVI, was five years ago.

Immediately after his arrival in Milan, Francisco went to the 'White Houses' of Via Salomone, a kind of ghetto settled in a set of popular buildings built in 1977, with 477 apartments inhabited by more than a thousand people.

In that socially depressed community, Bergoglio was acclaimed by a waiting crowd and visited three houses in which he spoke with his inhabitants, including a family of Muslim immigrants.

Then he will go to the city's Duomo, where he will talk with priests, before reciting the Angelus and blessing thousands of parishioners gathered in the greater Milanese square.

Later, the Pope will arrive at San Vittore’s prison, where he will lunch with inmates and then travel to the neighboring city of Monza, belonging to the archdiocese of Milan, where he will perform a mass in a park with bishops from the region of Lombardy, for which some 700 thousand people are registered.

At 17.30 Francisco will talk with candidates for confirmation at the Milanese stadium of San Siro and an hour later he will leave for Rome.

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