Vatican City, Nov 9, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis met Monday with an Italian Catholic missionary priest who was freed last month in Mali after he was kidnapped from his parish in Niger in 2018.

Speaking to Vatican News, the 59-year-old priest said that when greeting him, the pope not only shook his hand, but also kissed it. “I was not expecting [the gesture],” Fr. Pierluigi Maccalli said.