Archbishop Tomasz Peta of Astana, Kazakhstan, told Vatican News that a visit from Pope Francis will be “a great blessing for us Catholics and for the entire Kazakhstan.”

The Pope is due in Kazakhstan from September 13 to 15, to join in the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.

However, some doubts about the papal trip arose when the Pontiff told a television interviewer that his continued problems with a painful knee had made it impossible to consider a trip to Russia at this time.