Report from Vatican City: Amidst pouring rain, hundreds of Assumption students and graduates from 34 countries including the Philippines attended the Canonization of now Saint Marie Eugenie, founder of the Religious of the Assumption order. President Arroyo, together with Assumption's Superior Mother General Diana r.a. and Maria Carmela "Risa" Bondoc, the filipina youth whose miracle healing of a brain ailment (since 1995 & confirmed in 2006)was instrumental in Saint Marie Eugenie's canonization on June 3, 2007 at St. Peter's Basilica, together with the presidential entourage, met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Sala del Trono at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The President then had lunch with filipino priests at the Hotel Michaelangelo. She is scheduled to join her fellow assumptionistas for a Thanksgiving Mass June 4, 2007, Monday. From Rome, President Arroyo is scheduled to fly to Lisbon where she will meet Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva and visit the Shrine of Fatima.
Saint Eugenie’s order and the Fatima shrine both have large followings in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Philippines. On President Arroyo's arrival in Rome, going down the ramp of the plane, the President was welcomed by Philippine Ambassador to the Holy See Leonida Vera and Philippine Ambassador to the Republic of Italy Philippe Lhuillier, together with representatives of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a high ranking official of the Vatican representing the Pope.
From the Ciampino Airport, the President and her official delegation were immediately whisked to the St. Regis Hotel where they are billeted. She is scheduled to join her fellow assumptionistas for a Thanksgiving Mass June 4, 2007, Monday. From Rome, President Arroyo is scheduled to fly to Lisbon where she will meet Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva and visit the Shrine of Fatima.
From Portugal, Arroyo will proceed to China for an official visit to Chongqing and Shenzhen, which was originally scheduled in April. The trip had to be put off because the president’s husband needed heart surgery.
The president also just came back from a an economic trip to Australia and New Zealand.
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