Singapore —
Pope Francis departs next week on his longest international trip since becoming papacy, a gruelling 11-day journey that will take him to four countries in Asia and Oceania.
The 87-year-old pontiff is due to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore on a trip that will highlight economic and religious diversity.
This will be the Pope's first international trip of 2024, as he has faced recent health challenges and concerns.
Pope Francis was forced to cancel a visit to Dubai in November last year while recovering from flu and pneumonia, and has cancelled several engagements this year due to his deteriorating health.
The Pope currently suffers from limited mobility due to chronic knee problems and requires a wheelchair or a walking stick to get around.
Poor health has raised doubts about whether Pope Francis will be able to complete his 11-day tour of four countries.
“I was very surprised to see this journey announced. Why four countries? Why so far? Why so long?” said Michel Chambon, a research fellow in the Religion and Globalization Cluster at the National University of Singapore.
“We're obviously not going to slow down,” Chambon added.
Pope Francis arrives in Indonesia on Tuesday, becoming the third pope to visit the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
He is scheduled to begin his visit with talks with outgoing President Joko Widodo in the country's capital, Jakarta.
The Pope will host an interreligious meeting with representatives of Indonesia's six recognised religions at the country's largest mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia.
“His going to Indonesia is obviously not for Indonesian Catholics, but rather to restate and reiterate a global statement on Christian-Muslim relations,” Chambon told VOA.
Chambon described the overall state of these relations as a “concern” and said Pope Francis would “act actively to ensure that Christian-Muslim ties are not weaponized for political gain.”
Pope Francis aims to promote interreligious tolerance and understanding in Indonesia, but ensuring his safety in the country will be a complex challenge.
“Terrorist groups that specifically target the Catholic Church still exist in Indonesia, and of course in Southeast Asia,” said Stanislaus Riyanta, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia's School of Strategic and Global Studies.
Riyanta said Indonesian security authorities would be on high alert during the visit to enable “early detection, early warning and early prevention of any threats against the Pope.”
Security will also be tight in Papua New Guinea during Pope Francis' first visit to an Oceanian country.
The country's capital, Port Moresby, was placed under a state of emergency in January after deadly riots that spread to other cities in the island nation of about 10 million people.
Trouble erupted again in February when gun battles broke out between tribal communities in the remote highlands, with dozens of people killed in the violence.
Papua New Guinea is made up of many indigenous groups and hundreds of languages spoken, but the 2011 census showed that almost all of the population is Christian, and about a quarter are Catholic.
East Timor, the third stop on the Pope's tour, is also predominantly Christian: More than 95 percent of the population of about 1.5 million are Catholic, making it one of only two Catholic-majority countries in Asia.
Anticipation for the pope's arrival is building in the former Portuguese colony, but questions remain about the clergy sex abuse scandal that has shocked the country.
In 2022, the Vatican confirmed that Bishop Carlos Ximenes Bello had been sanctioned for allegedly sexually abusing boys.
Bello, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former hero of East Timor's independence movement, is subject to restrictions and a voluntary ban on contact with minors and currently lives in Portugal.
“The issue of sexual abuse may not be a protest, but it may raise strong questions from many people in Timor-Leste,” Chambon said.
Scholars say the Vatican hopes the pope will highlight Catholic teachings of compassion, care and generosity during his visit, particularly in East Timor.
“Pope Francis is trying to shine a spotlight on struggling communities in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste and remind the world about them,” said Jonathan Tan, the Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan Professor of Catholic Studies at Case Western Reserve University.
“They are dealing with extreme poverty, high rates of illiteracy and unemployment, and the impacts of climate change on their island communities,” Tan told VOA.
Pope Francis' final stop will be Singapore, a multi-religious city-state in the heart of Southeast Asia.
Less than 10 percent of Singapore's population is Catholic, and Tan said this was an opportunity for the Pope to “encourage and empower the Catholic minority community” in the region.
Pope Francis has made Asia a top priority during his papacy, making several visits to the continent, including to South Korea, the Philippines, Japan and Mongolia.
Chambon said the Pope's focus on Asia was a “long-term investment” for the Catholic Church and that the visit would “build communion and kinship between Asian Catholics and the Vatican.”
Tan said the visit to the region also provides an opportunity for the Vatican to convey the pope's ideas to an Asian audience.
“It's a big challenge for the Holy See, for the Vatican, to translate its universal ambitions into Asian words and Asian languages,” he told VOA.
