BY : Staff writer Christian Today
Pope Francis has arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, for the start of his 45th Apostolic Journey that will also take him to Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, and Singapore.
He will spend three nights in Jakarta, the capital of the world’s most populous Muslim majority nation. His first official engagements commence on Wednesday and include a visit to the main mosque, a meeting with outgoing president Joko Widodo, and celebrating mass with around 70,000 people.
The 87-year-old’s tour of Asia and Oceania will span an intensive 12 days – his longest Apostolic Journey abroad so far.
After Indonesia, Francis will travel to Papua New Guinea, which is home to two million Catholics. The last papal visit to the majority Christian nation was in 1984 by Pope St John Paul II. While in the country, Francis will show his closeness to those suffering the effects of poverty and natural disasters. He will also travel to the remote city of Vanimo where he will have a private meeting with missionaries from his native Argentina.
The next leg of his tour will take him to Timor-Leste, a former Portuguese colony and Asia’s most Catholic country. When John Paul II visited in 1989, the country was still under Indonesian occupation. During his time there, Francis will meet Jesuits and children with disabilities.
The final leg of his tour is Singapore, where around six per cent of the population is Catholic. He will celebrate mass at the 55,000-capacity National Stadium.
Michel Chambon, a theologian and anthropologist at the National University of Singapore, told the BBC that the visit is “not simply regional”.
“It is much more a global statement to reaffirm the universal possibility for Christian-Muslim fraternal engagement,” he said.
Photo: Vatican Media
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