POPE TO VISIT BRESCIA IN NOVEMBER FOR PAUL VI ANNIVERSARY

POPE TO VISIT BRESCIA IN NOVEMBER FOR PAUL VI ANNIVERSARY

(ANSA) - Rome, October 27 - Pope Benedict XVI will visit the northern Italian city of Brescia in November to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the death of Pope Paul VI, the Vatican announced Tuesday.

The pope begins his November 8 trip with a stop at a church in the nearby town of Botticino Sera, to visit the remains of Saint Arcangelo Tadini, a crusader for workers' rights during Italy's industrial revolution at the turn of the last century.

Afterwards, the pope heads to Brescia's cathedral to greet worshippers and celebrate a mass in the city's Piazza Paolo VI.

Benedict will later inaugurate a center for religious studies in the home where Paul VI was born and deliver an address at the Church of Sant'Antonio where he was baptized.

Pope from 1962 to 1978, Paul VI is credited with advancing the reforms adopted by the Second Vatican Council, in addition to improving relations with Orthodox Christians and Protestants.