Pope Francis will visit majority-Catholic Malta on April 2-3, the Vatican said Thursday, with a programme that includes the capital Valletta and the island of Gozo.

The 85-year-old pontiff was due to visit the Mediterranean nation in May 2020 but cancelled the day trip due the coronavirus pandemic.

John Paul II became the first pope to visit Malta in 1990 and returned in 2001. His successor, Benedict XVI, followed in 2010.

According to Catholic tradition, St Paul was shipwrecked in the Maltese archipelago on his way to his trial in Rome in the year 60 AD.

The Vatican said it would release further details of Francis’ visit “in the near future”, but the treatment of migrants is likely to feature in his activities or speeches.

Malta is on the frontline of migration into Europe, situated 95 kilometres (60 miles) south of Sicily and due north of Libya’s capital of Tripoli.

Like Italy, it is a port of entry for tens of thousands of people who cross the Mediterranean each year in search of a better life, many of them on leaky and overcrowded boats.

Francis has often spoken up for migrants and has called on the European Union to be more welcoming of those fleeing chaos in their home countries.

In 2020, the pontiff had been scheduled to meet Malta’s then new prime minister, Robert Abela, who is facing an election at some point this year.

“Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Journey to Malta from 2 to 3 April 2022, visiting the cities of Valletta, Rabat, Floriana and the island of Gozo,” the Vatican statement said.

Francis last year made a historic trip to Iraq, followed by visits to Budapest, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus.

An overwhelming majority of Malta’s roughly half a million population are baptised Catholics.