Pope Francis, who will turn 88 on Dec. 17, has set out to visit four countries in Asia and Oceania over the next 12 days: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Singapore.
He aims to reach out to the peripheries of the world to promote friendship and respect among the followers of the different religions and to call them to be a force for peace in a world that is being torn apart by conflicts. As leader of the Catholic Church, he also wants to meet, encourage and strengthen the Catholic communities, which are small in three of these four countries. Last but not least, he wants to get governments and the church to listen to the cries of the poor and to listen to the cry of the earth.
He began his first stop on the longest journey of his pontificate when his plane touched down at Jakarta International Airport on the morning of Sept. 3. It was hot and humid when he got off the plane and was pushed on a wheelchair to a red carpet for the low-key welcome ceremony. The smiling Francis warmly greeted the official delegations. A more formal welcome ceremony takes place tomorrow at the presidential palace.
The pope was welcomed by the minister for religious affairs and the Indonesian ambassador to the Holy See, as well as two young children dressed in traditional costumes and an honor guard. After the brief welcome, Francis was driven in a white economy car to the Vatican embassy in Jakarta, where a cloud of pollution hung over this traffic-congested and literally sinking city of 11 million people. He will rest there for the remainder of the day.
About 45 minutes after take-off on the flight from Rome to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the pope walked to the back of the plane with the aid of a cane to individually greet the 75 journalists, including America’s Vatican correspondent, who are accompanying him on his 45th foreign journey.
As usual, some onboard gave him gifts or asked him to pray for a sick relative or other intentions. Arthur Herlin, a correspondent for Paris Match, told him that a famous French photographer, Patrick Chauvel, 70, who was present in the church in San Salvador when Archbishop Óscar Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980, wants to give to the Vatican the original photos that he took before and after the murder.
Elisabetta Piqué, my wife and the Vatican correspondent for the Argentine newspaper La Nación, gave him a portable mini-fan to help keep him cool during his stay in this hot and humid city. She told him she learned that when Paul VI held a religious ceremony in the cathedral in Jakarta in 1970, he was almost overcome by the unbearable heat and humidity inside the building. (Francis goes to the cathedral tomorrow afternoon.)
Clément Melki, an AFP journalist who had spent two weeks on a ship with a French N.G.O. that helps migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea, gave him a torch that a migrant was holding when the group rescued him. “The migrants are always close to my heart,” Francis remarked.
Pope Francis had planned to make this journey in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced him to postpone it. He promised the governments and religious leaders then that he would visit as soon as possible, and now he is keeping that promise.
His main challenge will be mobility due to problems with his right leg. He moves short distances with the aid of a cane but uses a wheelchair for longer treks. Otherwise, he is in good health for a man of his age; his heart, lungs and other vital organs and indicators are all in good condition, and his mind is that of a man of 60, according to the doctor who operated on him in 2023 for an incisional hernia. He will be accompanied on this journey as usual by his doctor and two nurses, and no other special provisions were deemed necessary.
Nevertheless, Vatican officials whom I have spoken to have variously described his journey as “daunting,” “heroic” and even “punishing.” Some questioned the wisdom of his making such a challenging trip, which involves 44 hours in the air, passing through different time zones, experiencing tropical temperatures, very high humidity and air-conditioned rooms and buildings, not to mention eating different kinds of food that are far from the Roman cuisine he enjoys at the Vatican.
Francis, the first Jesuit pope, appears to be following in the footsteps of the first great Jesuit missionary to Asia, St. Francis Xavier, who arrived on this continent in 1546. As a young Jesuit, Francis Xavier had wanted to go as a missionary to Japan, but the head of the Jesuit order denied his wish because of earlier health problems that required an operation to remove the top lobe of his right lung.
Francis has had his eyes fixed on Asia from the beginning of his pontificate and has already made six visits to the continent. The pope sees the future of the Catholic Church on this continent where two-thirds of humanity lives but where Christians are today a tiny minority, and Catholics an even smaller one everywhere except for the Philippines and Timor Leste, where they make up a majority of the population.
It had been expected that three cardinals would travel with Francis: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, the prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization. But Cardinal Ayuso could not travel for health reasons, and Cardinal Parolin’s mother died on Aug. 3l. Consequently, only the Filipino Cardinal Tagle will travel with the pope.
His journey will take him first to three countries where religion is deeply rooted in society. He is now in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country after India, China and the United States, with 280 million people, and the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. He is the third pope to come here after Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989. He is expected to emphasize the importance of building respect and friendship between Christians and Muslims and of fostering harmony and peace in the country and the wider world.
From there, he will take the plane to Papua New Guinea, an overwhelmingly Christian country of 10 million people, where Catholics account for 30 percent of the population; he will remain there Sept. 6-9. It is the world’s most linguistically diverse country, with some 1,000 tribes speaking 860 different languages. It is also a country with extraordinary beauty, biodiversity, mountains and tropical forests, but it is often hit by earthquakes and there is a history of tribal violence. Pope John Paul II visited Papua New Guinea in 1984 and 1995. Francis is going not only to the capital city but also to the northwestern region, on the edge of the tropical forest and on the border with Indonesia. There he will meet the Argentinian missionaries with whom he has been in contact for many years and whom he promised he would visit one day.
From Papua New Guinea, he will travel to Timor Leste, the first new independent state of the 21st century where 97 percent of the population is Catholic and where John Paul II also visited when it was under Indonesian occupation. It is the land of highly valued sandalwood but also of great poverty. The church played a significant role in Timor Leste’s struggle for independence, but its people have suffered from the abuse of minors by one of the country’s heroes, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, now exiled in Portugal by the Vatican.
In visiting these three countries, Francis is likely to emphasize the need for greater social justice and addressing the plight of the poor. Although Indonesia is an emerging economy, with immense natural resources and possibilities, and many rich people, much of the population is poor. The populations of Papua New Guinea (10 million), and Timor Leste (1.5 million) are poor, too.
Likewise, all three countries have suffered from violence and political tensions in recent decades. Given this situation, Francis is likely to address the question of peace in the context of a world that he has described as suffering from a “third world war piecemeal.”
He is also likely to address climate change and the need to protect the environment in all three countries, drawing on his teaching in “Laudato Si’.”
His last stop will be in the island state of Singapore (Sept. 9-11). This rich city-state is ranked as the number three financial center in the world, after New York and London, and is the first in the Asia-Pacific region. The country is marked by great religious diversity. Christians account for 20 percent of the population and Catholics 3.5 percent, but 20 percent profess no religion. The pope will surely urge Christians to find new ways to evangelize in this prosperous land.
With his visit to Singapore, Francis, the tireless missionary pope, will have visited 65 countries since becoming pope in March 2013.
