Pope Francis is heading to Asia and Oceania. During the pilgrimage, which will last until September 13, he will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. This will be a record-breaking and long journey. He will cover approximately 33,000 kilometers in 12 days.
On the plane pilgrimages AND seven plane tripslasting 43 hours. The Pope will deliver 16 speeches. This is one of the longest journeys in the history of all papal pilgrimages.
Never before has Francis visited four countries in one trip – emphasized the director of the Holy See press office, Matteo Bruni, during a meeting with journalists. Among Vaticans There are many doubts as to whether this tiring expedition is really beyond our strength. The 87-year-old pope.
One of the oldest popes in the history of the Church is embarking on this extremely long journey; the oldest pilgrim. This will therefore be the greatest test of his strength to date. This effort is made despite the difficulty in moving around. He has been using a wheelchair for several years.
The Vatican announced that there would be a medical team on board the plane, as always: Francis’ doctor and two nurses.
That 45th trip abroad the current pope. This will happen in the footsteps of Saint John Paul IIwho was in these four countries: in East Timor before it became independent. Francisco intended to visit this region of the world, including Indonesia, in 2020, but this ended up being impossible due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Pope is resuming his foreign trips after almost a year. At the end of September last year he was in Marseille, in the south of France. He had to cancel his December visit to Dubai for the climate conference due to illness.
The first leg of the current pilgrimage will be the Indonesian capital Jakarta, where the Pope will arrive on Tuesday after a 13-hour overnight flight before noon local time. Franciszek will spend the rest of the day resting.
It will happen on Wednesday morning official welcoming ceremony of the Pope in front of the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace by Head of State Joko Widodo. There, Francis will meet with representatives of the Indonesian authorities and society and, later, with the clergy at the local cathedral.
At the end of the day, you will be invited by the young people of the Scholas Occurentes educational foundation.
On Thursday, the pope will take part in an interfaith meeting at the capital’s Independence Mosque (Masjid Istiqlal), one of the largest Islamic temples, built in 1978 and able to accommodate 120,000 people. Francis will sign a document there with the mosque’s grand imam.
Francis will also visit a charity center and celebrate a mass at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium attended by tens of thousands of people.
On Friday, the Pope will Papua New Guinea. He will come to the country’s capital, Port Moresbywhere you will also spend the next day.
On Sunday Francis will celebrate mass in the capitaland then fly to Vanimo – a city near the border with Indonesia. There he will meet with the faithful and a group of missionaries, and the next day with the young people at the stadium in Port Moresby.
The afternoon pope will begin a two-day visit to East Timor’s capital, Dili. More than 95 percent of the population of the country, which has been independent for 22 years, is Catholic.
It is worth noting that the arrival of Francis, following the historic visit of St. John Paul II in 1989, is of great significance to the Timorese. They believe that the arrival and words of the Polish Pope played a key role in highlighting their difficult situation when East Timor belonged to Indonesia and the local population was being persecuted there.
Francis will meet with young people and clergy and celebrate Mass on the grounds of Tasi Tolu, where Saint Francis presided over John Paul II 35 years ago.
On September 11th, the last stage of the Pope’s exhausting pilgrimage will begin: visit to Singapore. He will celebrate mass there at the national stadium.
To Rome Francisco will return on September 13.
Due to the specific nature of the continents visited – Asia and Oceania – it is expected that the Pope will also refer in his speeches to important issues of environmental protection and threats to it.
