Pope Francis will meet with the oldest Portuguese priest

Moments before praying next to the tombs of the ones who will be the youngest non-martyrs saints of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis will meet with the oldest Portuguese priest, on the edge of turning 105 years old.

The meeting with Fr. Joaquim Pereira da Cunha will take place at the Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima´s door around 9.30 a.m. on the 13th of May, inside the Basilica around 9.40 a.m. the Holy Father will pray in private next to the tombs of the Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

The greeting of the Holy Father to the oldest priest in Portugal was announced Friday in Rome by Greg Burk, the Vatican Press Room director, in the meeting with the journalists who will accompany Pope Francis Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Fatima.

Born on July 8th, 1912 in a place called Mesquinhata, in Gondomar, Porto, Joaquim Pereira da Cunha entered the Seminary of Vilar, in Porto, with 13 years old, having been ordained a priest on August 8th, 1937.

Coadjutor at the Valbom Parish, in Gondomar, he was nominated parish priest of Tabuado in 1938, role he only left on March 31st in the year 2000, accumulating with the parish of Rio de Galinhas between 1938 and September 6th of the year 2001.

He currently resides in the Priestly House of Porto.

Pope Francis goes on a Pilgrimage to Fatima on the 12th and 13th of May to preside to the Centennial of the Apparitions and the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta Marto.