If any evidence were needed to confirm that Pope Francis’ trip to Asia and Oceania is the longest, farthest and most challenging of his papacy, it’s that he’s bringing a secretary to help him navigate the four-nation program while remaining on the job. go home
Francis will cover some 32,814 kilometers (20,390 miles) by air during his September 2-13 visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, surpassing his 44 previous foreign trips and making it one of the longest papal trips. , in terms of days on the road and distance traveled.
That’s no small feat for a pope who turns 88 in December, uses a wheelchair, lost a lung to a respiratory infection in his youth and had to cancel his last foreign trip at the last minute (to Dubai in November to attend the UN climate conference) on doctor’s orders.
But Mr. Francis went ahead with this trip, which was originally planned for 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19. He brought a medical team of a doctor and two nurses and took the usual health precautions in the field. But recently, he added his personal secretary to the traditional Vatican delegation of cardinals, bishops and security.
This long journey recalls the journey of St. John Paul II, who visited all four destinations during his quarter-century pontificate, although East Timor was a territory occupied by Indonesia during his 1989 trip.
By tracing the steps of John Paul, Mr. Francis reinforced the importance of Asia for the Catholic Church because it is one of the few places where the church is growing in terms of faithful vocations and baptized religion. He emphasized that the complex area also contains some of the main priorities as a pope – an emphasis on interreligious and intercultural dialogue, caring for the environment and striving for the spiritual component of economic development.
Here is a look at the trip and some of the problems that are likely to come up, with the Vatican’s relationship with China ever-present in the background in an area where Beijing wields enormous influence.
Mr. Francis will visit the underpass in central Jakarta with the great imam, Nasaruddin Umar, before both attend an interfaith meeting and sign a joint declaration.
Mr. Francis has made improving Christian-Muslim relations a priority and has often used foreign travels to promote the agenda of religious leaders for peace and tolerance and abandon violence in the name of God.
The tradition of religious tolerance
Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population and has enshrined freedom of religion in its constitution, officially recognizing six religions – Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Protestantism and Catholicism. Mr. Francis may highlight this tradition of religious tolerance and celebrate it as a message to the wider world.
“If we can create collaboration between each other, that can be a great strength for the Indonesian nation,” said the imam in an interview.
Mr. Francis was elected pope in 2013. As Mr. Francis travels deep into the jungles of Papua New Guinea, he will be following one of the marching orders given to future Popes during his own election.
Few places are as remote, remote and impoverished as Vanimo, a northern coastal town on the main island of New Guinea. There Mr. Francis will meet missionaries from native Argentina who are working to bring Christianity to the many tribes who still practice pagan traditions alongside the Catholic faith.
“If we suspend our preconceptions, even in tribal cultures we can find human values ​​close to Christian ideals,” Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who heads the Vatican missionary evangelization office and is part of the Vatican delegation, told Fides missionary news office.
Mr. Francis will describe the environmental threats to vulnerable and poor places like Papua New Guinea, such as deep sea mining and climate change, and also show the diversity of 10 million people who speak about 800 languages ​​but are vulnerable. tribal conflict.
When John Paul visited East Timor in 1989, he sought to comfort the large Catholic population who had suffered under the brutal and bloody occupation of Indonesia for 15 years.
“For many years, you have experienced destruction and death due to conflict; You have known what it means to be a victim of hatred and struggle,” John Paul told the faithful during Mass by the sea in Tasi-Toli, near Dili.
“I pray that those who are responsible for life in East Timor will act with wisdom and good will towards all people, as they seek a just and peaceful solution to the current problem,” he said in a direct challenge to Indonesia.
It took another decade for the United Nations to hold a referendum on Timor’s independence, after which Indonesia responded with a scorched earth campaign that destroyed the former Portuguese colony. East Timor emerged as an independent nation in 2002, but still suffers from the trauma and wounds of an occupation that left 200,000 dead – almost a quarter of the population.
“Mass with the pope is a very strong moment, very important for Timor’s identity,” said Giorgio Bernardelli, editor of AsiaNewsmissionary news agency. “It also in many ways sheds light on the drama that Timor is doing for the international community.”
Another legacy Mr. Francis will face is the clergy sexual abuse scandal: Honored freedom hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo was secretly sanctioned by the Vatican in 2020 for sexually abusing boys.
There is no word on whether Mr. Francis will refer to Mr. Belo, who is still revered in East Timor but has been banned by the Vatican from returning.
Mr. Francis has used many of his foreign trips to send messages to China, be it sending greeting telegrams when he flies through Chinese airspace or indirect gestures of appreciation, friendship and brotherhood to the Chinese people when they are close.
Mr Francis’ visit to Singapore, where three-quarters of the population is ethnic Chinese and Mandarin is the official language, will give him another chance to reach out to Beijing as the Vatican seeks better relations for the benefit of the estimated 12 million Chinese. Catholic.
“He is a faithful man, who lives through a lot and remains faithful,” Mr. Francis told the Chinese province of the Jesuit order in a recent interview.
The trip comes a month before the Vatican is set to renew a landmark 2018 treaty governing the nomination of bishops.
Just last week, the Vatican reported its “satisfaction” that China had officially recognized Tianjin Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen, who according to the Vatican had become a bishop in 2019. The Holy See said China recognized him under civil law. today is “the positive fruit of the dialogue established over many years between the Holy See and the Chinese government.”
But by arriving in Singapore, a regional economic hub that maintains good relations with China and the United States, Francis is also embroiled in an ongoing maritime dispute as China increasingly asserts its presence in the South China Sea.
