San Salvador, April 26 (RHC-NNN) -- Salvadorian President Elect Salvador Sánchez Cerén was received Friday at the Vatican by Pope Francis.
 
According to press reports, the private meeting between Pope Francis and Cerén, the current Vice President of El Salvador and one of the historic leaders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), lasted about half an hour.
 
Sánchez Cerén gave the Pope a painting by Josue Villalta, carrying the image of Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, San Salvador’s Archbishop murdered in 1980 and whose canonization process was resumed last year by Pope Francis.
 
For his part, Pope Francis gave Sánchez Cerén the apostolic exhortation "Evangelii gaudium" (joy of the gospel).
 
Writing on his Twitter account, the president elect of El Salvador thanked Pope Francis for his words of hope and Christian joy for the Salvadorian people and said that it was a blessing to greet the Holy Father.
 
Sánchez Cerén, who will assume power on June 1st, was accompanied at the meeting by his wife Margarita Villalta, Salvadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Jaime Miranda and the country's Ambassador to the Holy See.