Pope Visits Papua New Guinea After Final Mass in Indonesia for 100,000

Pope Francis concluded his visit to Indonesia on Friday, celebrating a joyous Mass that attracted an astonishing crowd of 100,000 people. This gathered congregation was the culmination of his three-day trip in Jakarta before he moves on to Papua New Guinea as part of his 11-day journey through Southeast Asia and Oceania.

The 87-year-old pontiff had a lighter schedule on Friday, featuring only a farewell ceremony and a six-hour flight to Port Moresby. This provided him with a brief respite following a whirlwind series of events in Jakarta, where he engaged with the local faithful.

The highlight of his visit occurred on Thursday afternoon when he presided over a Mass that filled two sports stadiums and overflowed into a nearby parking lot where attendees could follow the proceedings on large screens. The Vatican had initially estimated that around 60,000 people would attend, later predicting 80,000, but local organizers confirmed that the turnout exceeded 100,000.

Among those who attended, Vienna Frances Florensius Basol from Malaysia expressed her gratitude for being part of the event, even from outside the stadium. “I feel very lucky compared to others who couldn’t come,” she said, sharing her sentiments from a parking lot filled with fellow Indonesian attendees watching the Mass broadcast on giant screens.

During his time in Indonesia, Pope Francis aimed to bolster the morale of the nation’s 8.9 million Catholics, who represent only 3% of the population of 275 million. He also emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue in a country that is home to the largest Muslim population in the world.

A notable moment of this trip was the signing of a joint declaration with the grand imam of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia. This agreement focused on combating religiously motivated violence and promoting environmental protection.

As he heads to Papua New Guinea, the pope’s agenda will focus more sharply on social justice issues. The nation holds a strategically significant place in the South Pacific and is home to over 10 million residents, most of whom are subsistence farmers.

Pope Francis plans to visit the remote area of Vanimo to connect with Argentine Catholic missionaries working among tribal populations that still practice Indigenous traditions alongside Catholicism.

Papua New Guinea, the most populous island in the South Pacific after Australia, boasts over 800 Indigenous languages and has faced chronic tribal conflicts over land rights that have intensified recently, resulting in deadly violence.

During his visit, the pope is expected to advocate for peaceful coexistence among tribal communities. He will also likely address the pressing issue of environmental preservation, as the region faces serious threats from climate change and resource exploitation.

The government of Papua New Guinea has cited extreme rainfall as the cause of a catastrophic landslide in May that devastated a village in Enga province. While official reports state more than 2,000 lives were lost, the United Nations places the death toll at 670.

Pope Francis marks a historical milestone as only the second pope to visit Papua New Guinea, succeeding St. John Paul II, who visited in 1984 during one of his extensive global tours. At that time, John Paul II honored the efforts of Catholic missionaries who had spent a century trying to establish the faith in the region.

Located in the Commonwealth, Papua New Guinea was once under Australian colonial rule until gaining independence in 1975. This stop marks the second leg of Pope Francis’s four-nation tour, which will also take him to East Timor and Singapore before he returns to the Vatican on September 13.

Source: AP