JAKARTA – Pope Francis has arrived in Jakarta at the start of the longest trip of his papacy and a tour that aims to showcase not only his affinity for the regions he will be visiting, but also his desire to advance the cause of peace and unity amid vast cultural and religious diversity.
The Pope landed in Jakarta on 3 September after a 13-hour flight. He will have a day of rest before beginning his official itinerary on Wednesday 4 September during the first stop of a four-nation tour around the Southeast Asia and Oceania regions.
His overall trip encompasses 2-13 September, including stops in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and will cover more than 20,000 kilometres in total, all of which makes this the longest and most taxing international voyage done by the now 87-year-old pontiff during his 11-year papacy.
During a brief greeting to journalists on board his ITA Airlines flight from Rome to Jakarta, the Pope thanked them for the work they will be doing on such a long trip, noting himself that this will be the longest trip of his papacy.
He then walked through the cabin and greeted each of them individually, exchanging jokes and receiving gifts, despite ongoing knee issues that often confine him to a wheelchair or to the use of a cane.
One journalist gave him an electric fan to use during the trip, as temperatures are expected to get above 30 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), with high humidity levels throughout the nearly two-week journey.
When another journalist brought up the plight of migrants, Pope Francis – a consistent advocate on behalf of migrants and refugees and who is expected to touch on the issue during his visits – said “they are close to my heart”.
After leaving Jarkarta’s airport, Pope Francis met briefly with a group of refugees hosted by the Jesuit Refugee Service in Indonesia, as well as with orphaned children cared for by Dominican nuns serving in the country. He also met with elderly people, refugees and homeless individuals cared for by the Sant’Egidio Community in Jakarta.
Francis will kick off his visit to Indonesia, the fourth largest country in the world in terms of population and the world’s largest Muslim nation, by meeting with President Joko Widodo and civil authorities on 4 September.
He will then hold a private meeting with Jesuits serving in Indonesia before meeting with bishops, clergy and members of religious communities serving in the country.
The pontiff will close his first day of official visits by meeting young people involved in <em>Scholas Occurentes</em>, a youth initiative dedicated to promoting education and social inclusion through the use of new technologies.
The highlight of Pope Francis’s visit to Indonesia will be an interreligious meeting at Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, where on Thursday 5 September he will sign a joint declaration along with other religious leaders. The venue will provide him with a platform to further advance inter-faith dialogue with Islam and speak out against extremism.
Before leaving Jakarta, Francis will meet with the beneficiaries of charitable organisations and celebrate Mass for the country’s minority Catholic population, which consists of around 8 million members.
After Indonesia, the Pope will then travel to Port Moresby and Vanimo in Papua New Guinea, a longtime home to Catholic missionaries from around the world, before moving on to East Timor and, finally, to Singapore, where he is expected to advance his agenda on China.
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Speaking to Vatican newspaper <em>L’Osservatore Romano</em>, Vatican Secretary of State Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Pope’s visit to Southeast Asia and Oceania underlines yet again “the topic of closeness, of proximity that so characterises the style of his pontificate”.
He continued: “Paraphrasing Saint Paul VI, I would say that the farther away – geographically – the countries are that he visits, that much more does the Holy Father feel this urgency in his heart [to go].”
Parolin, who was originally scheduled to participate in the trip as part of the Pope’s official delegation but had to pull out due to the death of his mother, said Pope Francis’s visit to Indonesia, in particular, is an opportunity to celebrate the peaceful religious coexistence it enjoys.
“Relations among various groups have until now been lived well, fundamentally, in the teaching of acceptance of the other, of mutual respect, of dialogue, of moderation,” he said.
What the Pope says and does, Parolin said, “will be a strong and pressing invitation to not abandon the path [of mutual respect]" and those words and actions from the pontiff "will contribute to supporting and encouraging fraternity, which is, as he loves to say, unity in difference”.
Noting that Papua New Guinea has a nefarious reputation for crime and corruption, with its capital Port Moresby recognised as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Parolin said the papal visit to that country can help shift society in a different direction.<br><br><strong><em>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/pope-francis-praised-for-making-remote-periphery-a-priority-on-forthcoming-global-trip/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Pope Francis praised for making ‘remote periphery’ a priority on next global trip</mark></a></em></strong>
“There are serious problems of poverty, injustice, corruption, and political and economic inequalities, as well as the impact of climate change,” he said, adding: “Pope Francis intends to nurture all efforts possible – on the part of political and religious institutions, but also making an appeal to the responsibility of each person, to provoke a jolt of change”.
This “jolt” will come, he explained, though the Pope promoting justice, attention to the poor and care for the common home.
Parolin recalled how when he was working as a low-level official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, he spent a great deal of time invested in the conflict between Indonesia and East Timor that resulted in the latter’s independence in 2002.
“I always considered what happened 25 years ago to be a sort of ‘miracle’, with the achievement of independence,” he said, noting that Catholicism is the majority religion in the country – which “makes East Timor the first Catholic country in Asia” – and that it “played a determining role in accompanying efforts toward that goal [of independence]”.
He went on to say that the Catholic Faith can now help the Timorese people “transform society, overcoming divisions, effectively fighting against inequalities and poverty", while also "countering” troubling issues such as violence among youth and against women.
Referring to the Pope’s stop in Singapore, Parolin noted that the city-state is home to people from all over the world, and called it a mosaic of different cultures and religious and spiritual traditions.
Given that a majority of the population in Singapore is ethnically Chinese, the country, he said, “constitutes a privileged place for dialogue with the Chinese people and culture in general”.<br><br><strong><em>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/keeping-body-and-soul-together-in-bangkok-and-singapore/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Keeping body and soul together in Bangkok and Singapore</mark></a></em></strong>
Similarly, he hailed the Jakarta visit as an opportunity to advance dialogue with Islam and noted that the tour is taking in countries, namely Indonesia and Singapore – and soon East Timor – that are members of ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations), which also includes countries impacted by conflict, such as Vietnam and Myanmar.
“The closeness and message of peace that Pope Francis will bring during this trip are equally directed to all of these realities,” he said.<br><br><em>Photo: Pope Francis is greeted after his arrival at SoekarnoHatta International Airport, Jakarta, 3 September 2024. Pope Francis arrived in Muslim-majority Indonesia on September 3 for the first stop of a four-nation tour in the Asia-Pacific that will be the longest of the 87-year-old's papacy. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
