Pope Francis will travel 32,814 kilometers by plane during his September 2-13 visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, far exceeding any of his previous 44 trips abroad.
He Pope Francis He brings his secretaries with him to help him manage an itinerary through four countries while still attending to business at home, further proof that this may be the most difficult trip of his papacy.
Francisco will travel 32,814 kilometers by plane during your visit, September 2 to 13a Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singaporefar surpassing any of his previous 44 trips abroad and becoming one of the longest papal trips in historyboth in travel days and distances traveled.
Prepared for extensive Asian tour at age 87
It is no small feat for a Pope who will be 88 years old in December, he goes in a wheelchairlost part of a lung to a respiratory infection when he was young and had to cancel his last trip abroad at the last minute (to Dubai in November to participate in the UN climate conference) on doctors’ orders. .
But Francisco continues with this journey, initially scheduled for 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19.
He will take with him his medical equipmentmade up of a doctor and two nurses, and will take the usual health precautions in the field. But, as a novelty, it adds its personal secretaries to the traditional Vatican delegation of cardinals, bishops and security.
In the footsteps of John Paul II and the Catholic rise in Asia
The long journey is reminiscent of the globe-trotting trips of John Paul IIwho visited all four destinations during his quarter-century pontificate, although Timor Oriental It was an occupied part of Indonesia at the time of his historic 1989 voyage.
By following in the footsteps of John Paul II, Francis reinforces the importance of Asia for the Catholic Churchsince it is one of the few places where The Church grows in the number of baptized faithful and religious vocations.
Furthermore, he emphasizes that the complex region also embodies some of his main priorities as Pope: the emphasis on interreligious and intercultural dialoguethe care of environment and the insistence on spiritual component of economic development.
Here is an overview of the trip and some of the questions that will probably be raised, with the Vatican relations with China always present in the background of a region in which Beijing exercises enormous influence.
Indonesia
Francis loves gestures of interfaith brotherhood and harmony, and there could be no better symbol of religious tolerance at the beginning of his journey than the “Tunnel of Friendship” underground, which connects Indonesia’s main mosque with the country’s Catholic cathedral.
Francis will visit the central Jakarta underpass with the big magnet, Nasaruddin Umar, before both participate in an interfaith meeting and sign a joint declaration.
Francisco has made the improving relations between Christians and Muslims a priority and has often used his trips abroad to promote his agenda of engaging religious leaders to work for peace and tolerance and renounce violence in the name of God.
Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population in the world and has enshrined religious freedom in its Constitution, officially recognizing six religions: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Protestantism and Catholicism. Francis is likely to highlight this tradition of religious tolerance and celebrate it as a message to the world at large.
Papua New Guinea
Francis was elected pope in 2013 thanks in large part to an extemporaneous speech he gave to his fellow cardinals in which he said the Catholic Church needed to go to the “peripheries” to reach those who most need God’s comfort.
When Francisco enters the jungles of Papua New Guineawill be carrying out one of the marching orders he established for the future Pope on the eve of his own election.
ADVERTISINGThere are few places as remote, peripheral and poverty-stricken as Vanimo, a coastal town in the north of the main island of New Guinea. There Francisco will meet with missionaries from his native Argentina what They work to spread Christianity to a majority town tribal that still practices pagan traditions alongside the Catholic faith.
“If we suspend our preconceived ideas, even in tribal cultures we can find human values close to Christian ideals”he told the missionary news agency ‘Fides’ Cardinal Luis Antonio Taglewho heads the Vatican’s office of missionary evangelization and is part of the Vatican delegation.
Francis is likely to reflect on the environmental threats looming over vulnerable and poor places like Papua New Guinea, such as deep seabed mining and climate changewhile noting the diversity of its approximately 10 million inhabitants, who speak some 800 languages but are prone to tribal conflicts.
Timor Oriental
When John Paul II visited East Timor in 1989, he tried to console its population, mostly Catholic, who had been suffering for 15 years. brutal and bloody indonesian occupation.
ADVERTISING“For many years, you have experienced destruction and death as a consequence of conflict; you have known what it means to be victims of hatred and strife,” John Paul II told the faithful during a seaside Mass in Tasi-Toli, near Dili.
“I pray that those who have responsibility for life in East Timor will act with wisdom and goodwill towards all, as they seek a just and peaceful solution to the current difficulties,” he said then in a direct challenge toIndonesia.
Las United Nations It would take another decade to organize a referendum about the independence of Timorafter which Indonesia responded with a scorched earth campaign that left the former Portuguese colony devastated.
East Timor emerged as an independent country in 2002.but still carries the trauma and scars of an occupation that left up to 200,000 dead, almost a quarter of the population.
ADVERTISINGFrancis will literally follow in the footsteps of John Paul II when I celebrate misa on the same seaside esplanade as that 1989 liturgy, which some consider a key date in the Timorese independence movement.
“That mass with the Pope was a very strong and important moment for the identity of Timor,” says Giorgio Bernardelli, director of ‘AsiaNews’, the missionary news agency.
Another legacy that Francis will face is the clergy sexual abuse scandal: The revered independence hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belowas secretly sanctioned by the Vatican in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys.
It is not known if Francisco will refer to Belo, who He is still revered in East Timor but to which the Vatican has prohibited returning.
ADVERTISINGSingapore
Francisco has taken advantage of several of his trips abroad to send messages to Chinawhether direct telegrams of greeting when flying over Chinese airspace or more indirect gestures of esteem, friendship and brotherhood to the Chinese people when they are nearby.
The Pope’s visit to Singaporewhere three quarters of the population is ethnic Chinese and Mandarin is the official language, it will give it another opportunity to get closer to Beijingsince the Vatican seeks improve ties for the sake of the approximately 12 million Chinese Catholics.
“They are a faithful people, who have experienced many things and have remained faithful”Francis told the Chinese province of his Jesuit order in a recent interview.
The trip comes a month before the Vatican renews a historic 2018 agreement governing the bishop appointments.
ADVERTISINGJust last week, the Vatican reported its “satisfaction” that China had officially recognized the obispo de Tianjin, Melchior Shi Hongzhenwho, as far as the Vatican is concerned, had taken office as bishop in 2019.
The Holy See said China’s official recognition of the bishop under civil law was now “a positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government.”
But upon reaching Singapore, an economic power regional that maintains good relations with both China and the United States, Francisco also enters into a long maritime disputegiven that China has become increasingly assertive with its presence in the South China Sea.
