Pope Francis concluded his longest tour to date on Friday, departing from Singapore for the Vatican after visiting members of the Catholic faith in four Asia-Pacific countries.
The 87-year-old successfully completed the 12-day trip, despite health concerns, traveling through diverse landscapes from jungles to urban areas. The tour included visits to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and ended in Singapore.
Sandra Ross, a church administrator in Singapore, described the tour as a “beautiful gesture,” emphasizing the importance of promoting unity and understanding across different cultures and faiths.
Notable moments from the Pope’s trip
On Thursday evening, Pope Francis led a small gathering of young people from various religious backgrounds in Singapore. He set aside his prepared speech, encouraging the youth to take risks, even if it meant making mistakes while reiterating the theme of tolerance.
The Pope remarked that all religions serve as paths toward reaching God, comparing them to different languages that lead to the same destination, as God is universal.
Catholics make up about 3.5% of Singapore’s population, which is less than 6 million. The Pope’s stop in Singapore followed his visit to East Timor, one of the world’s most Catholic countries, where 96% of the population adheres to the faith.
Prevent child abuse: Pope Francis urged in East Timor
In East Timor, Pope Francis addressed nearly half the population, celebrating a new era of peace. He urged the country’s leaders to intensify efforts to prevent child abuse, referencing recent scandals that have affected the Catholic Church.
Earlier, in Papua New Guinea, the Pope visited a remote jungle village, where he condemned violence and rejected practices rooted in superstition and magic. He also distributed medical aid to the local community.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, Pope Francis visited Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, where he delivered messages opposing conflict and addressing the issue of climate change.
Pope’s trip initially planned for 2020
Parts of the Pope’s trip, initially planned for 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic, will follow the route taken by St. John Paul II, who visited the same four nations during his 27-year pontificate.
Before starting his trip, the Pope announced on X that he was starting an Apostolic Journey to several countries in Asia and Oceania, asking for prayers that the journey might be fruitful.
Since his election in 2013, the Pope has called on the Catholic Church to extend God’s comfort to marginalized or distant communities. He is only the third pope to visit Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world.
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Pope Francis engaging with Asia
Over the past decade, the Pope has increased his engagements with Asia. Early in his pontificate, he made four significant trips to the region: South Korea, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Japan, where only 0.5% of the population identified as Catholic at the time. He has also visited Bangladesh, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
No pope has yet visited China, due to strained relations between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party over bishop appointments. It is believed that a deal was reached in 2018 allowing the Vatican some say in these appointments.
During his trip, Francis will be accompanied by a doctor and two nurses. There are concerns about the impact of the ambitious itinerary on his health. Francis, who had part of one lung removed in his youth, has recently struggled with respiratory and mobility issues, leading him to miss some weekly Sunday blessings. Last November, he canceled a trip to Dubai for the UN climate meeting due to lung inflammation.
Longest and farthest trip for Pope Francis
The trip was the longest and farthest-reaching for Francis so far, and at 87, some supporters worry it might be among his last. However, his journey to Asian countries with relatively small Catholic populations, enduring oppressive temperatures, high humidity, and pollution, highlighted his commitment to shaping a church with a less Eurocentric focus.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, a close aide to Francis, noted that the distance, fatigue, and challenges were integral to the message.
Francis’s papacy has always been symbolic, reflected in his use of modest cars, his act of kissing criminals’ feet, and his Casio watch. His destinations are as significant as his homilies in defining his papacy. This trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore was seen as an extension of his papal vision.
His goal has been to emphasize outreach and inclusivity. By visiting remote villages in Papua New Guinea, he demonstrated his commitment to the church’s “peripheries,” which include distant, minority, or poorer Catholics.
Defying health issues
Asia, with two-thirds of the world’s population and growing global influence, has been a focus for Francis. Despite not being able to visit China due to the lack of official diplomatic relations, he signed a controversial deal with the Chinese government on bishops’ appointments. This trip completed his tour of the surrounding region, visiting eleven countries near China. Francis departed from his final stop, Singapore, on Friday and returned to the Vatican.
His supporters find his efforts particularly meaningful given his age, health issues, and the increasing difficulty of travel. As he greeted crowds, bishops admired him, holding onto their skullcaps in the wind.
Throughout the trip, Francis displayed notable vitality, speaking spontaneously and making jokes about various subjects. In Papua New Guinea, he flew over timber forests to a remote Pacific town, donned a feathered headdress, and visited a school run by Argentine missionaries, where he drank mate tea. In a stadium, he asked the crowd whether they preferred harmony or confusion, and elicited a louder response by pretending not to hear.
At times, he appeared tired or less engaged. During a speech in Port Moresby, he paused several times to cough. In Jakarta, he did not lead the Mass at the stadium and appeared to lose his balance briefly upon arrival in Port Moresby.
Message of coexistence
Despite these challenges, locals appreciated his effort. Justin Ain Soongie, the bishop of Wabag in Papua New Guinea, expressed that Francis’s visit made them feel part of a universal church. He noted that while Pope John Paul II had visited Papua New Guinea at 63, Francis took the risk of traveling at 87, even using a wheelchair, embodying his message through his actions.
In East Timor, about half of the population attended a Mass led by Francis, with people climbing rooftops for a view. Billboards with his image appeared in both impoverished suburbs and lush gardens across the region. Faithful dressed in various attires waved Vatican flags, and in Papua New Guinea, despite local rivalries, people came together to see the pope, some after days of trekking through forests.
Indonesia, the primary stop of the trip, has the world’s largest Muslim population but also millions of Christians. Coexistence is central to its identity, though episodes of intolerance persist. In Indonesia, Francis signed an agreement with Nasaruddin Umar, the leader of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque, with the two men sharing warm embraces.
In Singapore, his final stop, a financial hub with a small Catholic population, Francis filled the national stadium with worshipers for a Mass.
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