On Sunday (5 February), Pope Francis said that he expected to continue travelling despite his knee ailment, joking that “weeds never die” and adding that he hoped to go to Mongolia in September. The trip would be the first ever by a pope to Mongolia.

The day trip to the southern French city of Marseille was known about but the mention of Mongolia was a complete surprise to reporters, so much so that some thought he might have said Angola.

Last August Pope Francis named Archbishop Giorgio Marengo, an Italian, the first cardinal to be based in Mongolia, where he is the Catholic Church’s administrator.

The country has fewer than 1,500 Catholics but is strategically significant because it borders with China, where the Vatican is trying to improve the situation of Catholics in the communist country.