Pope Francis' visit to Asia and Oceania in September will be a journey of religious, economic and social contrasts.
The 87-year-old Pope will visit four countries from September 2 to 13, making it the longest journey of his papacy in terms of both distance traveled and number of days away from the Vatican.
The journey will also take him to Muslim-majority Indonesia and Christian-majority Papua New Guinea, as well as Asia's economic powerhouse Singapore and Timor-Leste, one of the world's poorest countries.
The trip was planned for September 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold.
Not only is Pope Francis four years older, he now regularly uses a cane, walker or wheelchair to get around.
The visit, the 45th of his papacy, is expected to focus on interreligious dialogue, ethnic harmony, care for creation, attention to immigrants, and gratitude for the work of missionaries and the Church's contributions to education and health.
The Pope's visit will begin in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population; Catholics make up only about 3% of the population. He will then travel to Papua New Guinea, where an estimated 98% of the population is Christian. Timor-Leste is the only Catholic-majority country he plans to visit, with the Vatican estimating 96% of the population to be Catholic. In Singapore, Buddhists make up the largest religious group at about 31%, followed by 20% who claim no religion. Christians make up almost 19% of the population, and Muslims about 15%.
From a European or North American perspective, all four countries are considered part of the world Catholic “periphery,” a frontier region that Pope Francis will prioritize when accepting invitations, but he will stick to the largest cities in each country, with one exception: On September 8, he will spend about three hours in the towns of Vanimo and Baro, on the northwest coast of Papua New Guinea.
According to Father Giorgio Licini, secretary general of the Papua New Guinea Bishops' Conference and a PIME missionary, it's personal.
Writing in Avenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Father Richini said Pope Francis insisted on going to the outpost despite the advice of the bishops' conference and the government because he wanted to visit his friend, Father Martin Prado, 35, a member of the Incarnate Word from Argentina, and see the work he and the Incarnate Word nuns were doing in the remote area.
But Indonesia will be his first stop, with interreligious dialogue and “human fraternity” expected to dominate the agenda.
Father Marcus Solo Keuta, an Indonesian official at the Vatican's Office for Interreligious Dialogue, said relations between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia were generally “very peaceful, very friendly,” but that relations could vary in different parts of the country, which is made up of more than 17,000 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited.
Father Soro said that while both Indonesia's main Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, and the Indonesian government promote official dialogue, peaceful coexistence and simple neighborliness, he is concerned by the emerging trend of “ghetto building” – people trying to live in areas that are either exclusively Muslim or exclusively Christian – which is reducing mutual knowledge, trust and cooperation.
The priest, who grew up on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores, told the Catholic News Agency that it is still common for members of the Nahdlatul Ulama Youth League to stand guard outside nearby Christian churches during Christmas Eve and Easter vigils to ensure that services can take place peacefully.
“Unfortunately, these good relations will always be disrupted by people's extremism and violence, especially the politicization of religion,” he said. “This divides nations, societies and religions, and friends become enemies. We have seen this many times in the past.”
“We live as diverse human beings, which is why we have no choice but to interact with each other,” he said.
Francis is also expected to speak about religious imperatives to care for creation in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor – three countries that are struggling to regulate mining despite accelerating deforestation as global markets seek tropical timber, and which rely on profits from mineral exports.
Pope Francis is not the first pope to visit the countries on the itinerary: St. Paul VI visited Indonesia in 1970, and St. John Paul II visited the country in 1989. On the same trip, St. John Paul visited East Timor, which celebrated its independence from Indonesia in 2002. Polish popes visited Papua New Guinea in 1984 and 1995. In 1986, St. John Paul visited Singapore, but his stay was just five hours, long enough to celebrate a public Mass, meet with government officials and speak with the country's priests.
Singapore is one of the world's wealthiest countries and Pope Francis' 46-hour visit will include spending time with the island's poor and sick, who are cared for at St. Teresa Home, a nursing home that can accommodate up to 200 patients.
A 2014 Pew Research Center report rated Singapore as the most religiously diverse country in the world, but also found that a significant percentage of the population claims no religious affiliation at all. Pope Francis' final event in Singapore before his 12-hour flight to Rome will conclude the theme with an interreligious meeting with young people.
