Pope Francis left Monday on an 11-day trip to Southeast Asia and Oceania, the longest and one of the most challenging of his tenure. It could be particularly difficult for Francis, 87, who has been using a wheelchair and battling health problems.
But the trip, which includes a stop in Indonesia — the world’s largest Muslim-majority country — also indicates he has no intention of reducing his outreach to Catholics in far-flung areas.
Francis will visit four countries and travel a total of 32,000 kilometers by plane. From Indonesia he will go to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, to deepen his commitment to Asia, one of his priorities.
The trip will include more than 43 hours of flying and meetings with the faithful, clergy and local politicians in cities with tropical climates or high levels of pollution on the other side of the world from Rome.
“It’s a physical test,” said Massimo Faggioli, a theology professor at Villanova University, “and a sign that this pontificate is far from over.”
Why do you visit these countries?
The pope chose four island nations to extend his outreach into what he calls “the peripheries,” a term for overlooked and remote places with small, minority or persecuted Catholic communities. The trip is also one of Francis’ boldest engagements with Asia, a rapidly growing part of the world that the pope has long considered a strategic target.
Francis reached a largely secret agreement with China in 2018 on the appointment of bishops, but not all issues have been resolved as China’s government still exercises strong political control over religious life, said Gianni Criveller, dean of studies at the PIME International Missionary School of Theology in Milan.
Although no pope has been able to visit China, Francis has made trips, such as to Mongolia, that have essentially put him on China’s doorstep. This time too, Faggioli said, the trip is seen as an attempt to “talk to the countries he can’t go to.”
He said the trip also showed Francis’ ambition to make the Roman Catholic Church truly global, drawing attention to areas that are not traditionally Christian in culture and where Catholicism coexists with other religions, relying on the devotion of communities rather than wealth, endowments or historical hegemony.
Unlike in Europe, the Catholic Church in Asia is not “resting on its laurels,” Faggioli said, and belief remains in some cases an act of resistance.
“It sends a message to all Catholics,” Faggioli said. “That the future of the church looks more like these churches where we are a minority than those where we are a majority.”
The pope’s first stop, Indonesia, also reflects Francis’ commitment to promoting dialogue between Muslims and Christians. He was the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula, in 2019.
He is also likely to call for global action to protect the environment, in a part of the world that is particularly vulnerable to climate change, including rising sea levels and severe weather events such as droughts and typhoons.
Is the Pope too weak for such a trip?
The Vatican had originally planned to make the trip in 2020, but cancelled it due to the pandemic. Despite his advanced age and ailments, the pope has pledged to show that “I am still alive even if some would like me dead,” as he once joked.
Francis’ health has been a cause for concern in recent years. Within three years, he had a hernia operation, colon surgery and was hospitalized for a respiratory infection. Last year he missed a summit in Dubai because of health problems.
However, in recent weeks the Pope has been seen walking, rather than using a wheelchair, as he had been doing more and more frequently.
On the 11-day trip, he will be accompanied by his medical team (two nurses and a doctor) and, in a first, by his secretaries. Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesman, told a news conference on Friday that no additional precautions had been taken for this trip, as the measures they normally take were considered sufficient.
Still, the ambitious itinerary of the octogenarian leader of the world’s Roman Catholics has inevitably raised questions about the impact on his health.
Bruni was asked by reporters about the 92 percent humidity the pope would face in Vanimo, a town nestled between the Papua New Guinea rainforest and the Pacific Ocean. Markus Solo, an Indonesian priest who deals with interfaith dialogue at the Vatican, said he was concerned about the impact of Jakarta’s high pollution, in part because Francis lost part of a lung to an infection as a teenager.
“Hopefully the government will do something to reduce pollution during the visit,” he said.
Jakarta Environment Service chief Asep Kuswanto said no specific plans had been made to curb air pollution during the pope’s visit.
However, some measures appear to have been taken to protect the pope’s health. Francis was not scheduled to visit Flores, a predominantly Catholic Indonesian island.
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“His health condition does not allow him to go there,” said Father Solo, originally from Flores. “We have to be very cautious.”
Ismail Cawidu, a senior official at Jakarta’s Istiqlal mosque, a key stop on the visit, said the pope would not tour the mosque but would instead meet with other religious leaders in a plaza outside.
Ismail said they had asked the Vatican if the pope could walk through the “tunnel of friendship” that connects the mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, to a Catholic cathedral, but were still waiting for a response.
What can we expect from the trip?
- Indonesia has a large Christian population, with a lively Catholic community. The country has been held up as an example of interfaith tolerance, but continues to face challenges to its image as Islamic extremist groups have put increasing pressure on other religions. The pope’s visit to the Istiqlal mosque will include a meeting with representatives of the country’s officially recognised religions – Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism and Catholic and Protestant Christianity. He will also celebrate a mass at a stadium in the city, which is likely to be attended by tens of thousands of people.
- Papua New Guinea, home to more than 800 languages, is one of the world’s poorest countries, and Pope Francis “wants to send the message that he can reach everyone, that no one is too far away,” Criveller said. After spending most of next weekend in the capital, Port Moresby, Francis will fly north to the coastal town of Vanimo, where he is likely to address the issue of protecting nature from extractive companies and the effects of climate change.
- In East Timor, Asia’s newest nation and the only predominantly Catholic country on the trip, Francis will follow in the footsteps of John Paul II, who also visited the conflict-ravaged nation. Francis could face questions about the scandal involving Carlos Ximenes Belo, a Nobel Prize-winning bishop and independence hero who the Vatican has acknowledged had sexually abused children.
- In Singapore, an economic powerhouse with a mix of Asian ethnicities and religions, Francis will get an up-close look at one of the world’s most diverse societies, as well as a small but vibrant Catholic community where the faithful still pack the church floor.
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