No American groups present at 3 consecutive papal general audiences

No groups from the United States were present at the Pope’s August 28 general audience, according to the Vatican newspaper.

L’Osservatore Romano reported that groups of the faithful from Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Norway, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Portugal were present at the audience.

At the previous two audiences, held on August 7 and August 21, no American pilgrimage groups were present—a rare, if not unprecedented departure from the habitual American presence at audiences in recent decades.