Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to Slovakia on September 15.
The Alitalia plane that carried him back to Rome took off shortly after the scheduled departure at 13:45.
"I carry you all in my heart," the Pope said at the end of the mass in Šaštín that he served earlier in the day, to bid farewell to the crowd and the whole country.
President Zuzana Čaputová, PM Eduard Heger, Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár, Bratislava Archbishop Stanislav Zvolenský and other members of the delegation bid farewell to the pontiff at the airport.
Highlights of Pope Francis’s four-day tour of Slovakia:
>>> Read all updates on Pope Francis's visit to Slovakia here.
On Monday in Bratislava, Pope Francis met with President Zuzana Čaputová and her guests He addressed the clergy in St. Martin’s Cathedral and advised them to speak a language people can understand. Outside of the official programme, Francis received the recalled archbishop Róbert Bezák, who later joined him with other bishops on stage in Šaštín.
The Pope has met with the Jewish community in Bratislava and lit candles for the Holocaust victims. Your suffering is our suffering, he said.
On Tuesday in eastern Slovakia, the Pope served the Byzantine rite liturgy in Prešov, and later moved on to Košice where he visited the Luník IX neighbourhood, the largest segregated Roma community in Slovakia.
Foreign media paid particular attention to the Pope’s visit to Lunik IX as a sign of inclusion
In Košice, the Pope met with the youth, encouraged them not to succumb to pessimism and sadness.
Pope Francis served the main mass of the national pilgrimage in Šaštín on Wednesday: When the Church stops moving, it becomes ill, he said
