Costa Rica President Invites Pope Leo XIV to Visit After 40 Years in Vatican Meeting Today

She came carrying coffee and a picture of a queen. Costa Rican President Laura Fernández Delgado walked into the Apostolic Palace on Thursday 29 October 2026 with coffee from various regions of her country and an image of Our Lady of the Angels, and she left having asked the Pope to do something no pope has done in more than 40 years: come to Costa Rica.

Pope Leo XIV recieved Fernández in a private audience at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on Thursday morning, as reported by CathoNews. Their conversation lasted about half an hour, and the Vatican press office bulletin for 29 October lists Fernández, with her husband and entourage, among that morning's audiences.

The invitation was the heart of the meeting. Fernández used the occasion to invite the Pope to visit Costa Rica and to venerate the image of Our Lady of the Angels, the country's patroness, CathoNews reported.

She pointed out that the most recent papal visit occurred when St. John Paul II came to Costa Rica in March 1983, a gap of more than four decades that she clearly wants to close.

The Holy Father and I took the opportunity to discuss our interest in receiving him in Costa Rica. The last time a pope visited Costa Rica was in 1983, more than 40 years ago.

Fernández gave that account to the EFE news agency, as carried by Americano, and she put the weight of the invitation in plain terms. Costa Rica, she said, is a Catholic country whose constitution establishes Catholicism as the official religion of the state, and receiving the Holy Father on national soil would be of great importance.

We believe that, for a Catholic country with a constitution that establishes Catholicism as the official religion of the State, it is of great importance to receive the Holy Father on national soil.

No date for a visit was announced in the coverage consulted for this story, and none is claimed here. An invitation is not an itinerary, and the reporting records the invitation, the gifts, and the talks, without adding a date that was not given.

Pope Leo XIV Costa Rica: Migration and Security at the Centre of the Talks

After the audience with the Pope, Fernández held talks with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, and with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States. Those present expressed satisfaction with the quality of relations between the Holy See and Costa Rica and between the Costa Rican state and the local Church, CathoNews reported.

The exchanges addressed sociopolitical issues in Costa Rica and across the region, with special attention given to security and to migration. Fernández highlighted the presence of Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica and the cooperation her goverment maintains with the United States on deportation processes, according to CathoNews.

She also outlined security measures combining investment in education, health care, and support for young people with efforts to prevent imprisoned organised-crime figures from continuing to direct violence from behind bars.

To EFE, Fernández put the same concerns in the language of prayer. She conveyed to the Pope the importance of continuing to pray for the challenges Costa Rica faces, especially regarding security, drug trafficking and terrorism, and migration issues, Americano reported.

I also conveyed to the Pope the importance of continuing to pray for the challenges we face, especially regarding security, drug trafficking and terrorism, and migration issues.

Laura Fernández Pope Meeting: A President Immensely Moved

Fernández did not hide how the meeting affected her. She declared herself immensely moved and grateful for the unique opportunity to be recieved by the pope, EFE reported, and she said the meeting also resulted in an agreement to strengthen relations between the Holy See and Costa Rica.

She added, as EFE reported, that all of Costa Rica has been praying for the Pope and following him closely. It sits naturally beside the gifts she brought: coffee grown in Costa Rican soil, and the image of the patroness her people call upon.

Our Lady of the Angels is more than a devotional image in Costa Rica. She is the patroness whose shrine draws pilgrims from across the country, and an invitation to venerate her image on Costa Rican soil is an invitation to stand where that devotion lives.

Readers who want more on Pope Leo's recent public ministry can find it in the report of France recording more than 13,000 adult baptisms as Pope Leo visited Paris, and the wider picture of young adult faith is set out in the Gen Z Catholic revival story, in which the Vatican urged caution as France baptisms jumped 26 percent.

The Latin American dimension of the Church's life is also part of the context, including the report on Tere Ramos becoming the new coordinator of Latin American youth ministry in this same publishing run, and Jonathan Roumie's explanation of why he wears skull rings almost every day.

For now, the invitation stands open and unanswered in public. A president went home with an agreement to strengthen relations and a story to tell about a half-hour conversation in the Apostolic Palace.

Will the Pope accept, and will Costa Ricans one day line the roads to greet a pontiff on their own soil for the first time in more than four decades, with coffee ready and the image of Our Lady of the Angels waiting? The invitation has been given, and the answer, whenever it comes, will be news of its own.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.