Excitement is building up in the Philippines, the country with the third largest number of Roman Catholic believers in the world after Brazil and Mexico, as well as one of two predominantly Catholic countries in Asia, as Pope Francis could potentially visit the archipelago in 2016.

Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay, who represented the country to the pontiff's inaugural mass on Tuesday, said he personally invited Pope Francis to visit the Philippines for the 51st International Eucharistic Congress to be held on 2016 in Cebu. Mr. Binay extended the invitation at the Vatican after the installation.

"Probably. Please pray for me," Joey Salgado, Mr. Binay's spokesman, quoted the Pope's reply to the invitation.

But Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, retired Archbishop of Manila, strongly believes the newly-installed supreme spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic faith will be in the Philippines in 2016. Cardinal Rosales was one of the three Filipino cardinal delegation who flew to Vatican for the papal conclave.

The last 2012 International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin, Ireland. Attended by bishops, priests, nuns and laity from around the world, the congress is held every four years. It was in 1937 when the Philippines last hosted the congress.

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