Pope to visit impoverished Roma quarter in Slovakia

Pope Francis is set to visit one of Europe's most marginalised communities next week when he travels to Slovakia and meets members of the Roma population. The encounter, in the Lunik IX quarter of Slovakia's second largest city of Kosice, will be one of the highlights of his trip.

Lunik IX has a reputation that could hardly be worse: a neighbourhood most Slovaks wouldn't dare to enter. But local resident Anna Turtakova says that's unfair. "Everybody's afraid of being eaten by wolves at Lunik IX but there are no wolves here, just people," she quips.

The neighbourhood is a fitting destination for Francis, the so-called Pope of the Peripheries. It's the largest of some 600 shabby segragated settlements where some of Slovakia's poorest Roma members live. Many of the Roma settlements lack even basic utilities such as running water or sewage systems, gas or electricity.

Local officials are preparing a warm welcome for the Pope. "It's a huge honor for us," Lunik IX mayor Marcel Sana says. For local priest Peter Zatkulak, the visit is a chance to reset the often-strained relartionship between the Roma and the rest of Slovakia's population.

"Through prayer, we'd like to seek reconciliation between the Slovaks and the Roma, and also the Church, because we have harmed each other and that has to end," he says. "It's time to say sorry and start all over again."

Roma have long suffered racism and discrimination in Slovakia and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, and continue to face huge hurdles in employment and education. Residents of Lunik IX are hoping the Pope's visit will lead to a change for the better. "I've heard about him that he tends to visit the poorest, which might be the reason why he decided to come because this is the poorest neighborhood in Slovakia," said Monika Gulasova, 19, who's in a choir that will sing for Francis during a church service. Francis will arrive in Slovakia on Sunday after a brief stop in Hungary.

In addition to visiting the Roma in Kosice, he'll visit the Slovakian capital Bratislava and the city of Presov. The Pope will also meet with Slovakia's Jewish community and hear the testimony of a Holocaust survivor before wrapping up his trip with a Mass on Wednesday in Sastin, the site of an annual pilgrimage to venerate the patron saint of Slovakia, Our Lady of Sorrows. The last Pope to visit Slovakia was John Paul II in 2003.