PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — Pope Francis honored the Catholic Church on the outskirts on Sunday when he celebrated Mass in Papua New Guinea before heading to a remote part of the South Pacific country with tons of humanitarian aid and toys to deliver to the faithful and missionaries living there.
About 35,000 people filled the stadium in the capital Port Moresby for the morning Mass. It begins with dancers in grass skirts and feather headdresses performing on traditional drums as priests in green vestments are processed up to the altar.
In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may feel far from their faith and the institutional church, but God is close to them.
“Those of you who live on this great island in the Pacific Ocean may think of yourself as a far, far away land, at the edge of the world,” Francis said. “But… today God wants to come closer to you, to break the distance, so that you know that you are in the center of his heart and that everyone is important to him.”
Francis himself traveled to a faraway land on Sunday, flying to remote Vanimo, on the northwest coast of Papua New Guinea, to meet with a small Catholic community served by missionaries from Argentina. He traveled with only his closest aides and security detail, leaving the full Vatican delegation in Port Moresby.
Francis was transported by a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 cargo plane and carried one ton of humanitarian aid, including medicine, clothes and toys for children, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
The plane, which is based at the Australian base in Port Moresby, is used because of its cargo capacity – it also carries Pope Francis’ car – and because the small airport in Vanimo does not have an ambulift, the wheelchair lift that Francis is now using. have to get on and off the plane. By flying in a C-130 Francis was able to descend via a ramp, Vatican officials said.
Part of the cargo included eight suitcases of medicine and other necessities that had been prepared by one of the Argentine missionaries, the Reverend Alejandro Diaz, during a recent trip to Rome and left with the Vatican to carry them, ANSA news agency reported.
Francis has long prioritized the church on the “periphery”, saying it is more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has generally avoided foreign trips to European capitals, preferring remote communities where Catholics are often in the minority.
Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, this coastal town is perhaps best known as a surfing destination.
Francis, the first Latin American Pope in history, also has a special affinity for Catholic missionary work. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he hoped to become a missionary in Japan, but was unable to go due to poor health.
Now as pope, he often holds up missionaries as models for the church, especially those who have sacrificed their faith to distant places.
There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth of Nations believed to be around 10 million. Catholics practice their faith alongside traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animism and witchcraft.
On Saturday, Francis heard firsthand how women are often accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families. In a speech to priests, bishops and nuns, Francis called on church leaders in Papua New Guinea to be closer to these people on the margins who have been wounded by “prejudice and superstition.”
“I also think about those who are marginalized and wounded, morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition sometimes to the point of taking their lives,” said Francis. He called on the church to be very close to those on the margins, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”
Francis’ visit to Vanimo is the culmination of a visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of a four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After stopping first in Indonesia, Francis went to East Timor on Monday and then completed his visit in Singapore this week.
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