Pope Francis greets the crowd at Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Sep 9, 2024 / 10:14 am (CNA).
Pope Francis was joined by more than 10,000 people for a … […]
Pope Francis is welcomed in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 6, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Sep 6, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis touched down in Papua New Guinea on Friday, the second country of his 12-day apostolic journey to A… […]
St. John Paul II (1920-2005). / Credit: Itto Ogami via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
CNA Staff, Sep 1, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis will be visiting the country of Papua New Guinea from Sept. 6-9 as part of an 11-day, multi-country papal… […]
Children look on during a procession at the General Assembly that was held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in 2022. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
CNA Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Children and youth will be central to Pope Francis’ visit to Papua New Guinea from Sept. 6–9, according to Father Giorgio Licini, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon Islands.
Licini, who is on the organizing committee of the Holy Father’s 2024 visit, said young people are central in the planning of the papal trip to Papua New Guinea. In the Catholic Church, “the level of participation by laity and youth is high,” he said. “Everything is ‘young’ in PNG: church, country, modern civilization.”
“It was only in early October 2023 that our bishops’ conference was told that the pope still had a great desire to visit Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea in Oceania,” Licini told CNA.
As part of his apostolic journey, Pope Francis is expected to visit a safe house for young girls in Vanimo and then, in the nearby village of Baro, greet missionaries, staff, and students of a school he helped develop. In Port Moresby, the Holy Father intends to meet with children supported by the archdiocese’s ministries for the care of street children.
“The youth here greatly suffer for lack of education and employment opportunities. The breakdown of the family adds to neglect, poverty, and micro-criminality,” Licini explained. “Besides education and health, nowadays the social services of the Catholic Church focus on family life, child protection and promotion, domestic violence, and sorcery accusations related [to] violence, corruption awareness, and justice, peace, and reconciliation, mainly in [areas affected by tribal violence].”
The last appointment of the papal visit in Papua New Guinea will be a youth festival at the city stadium in Port Moresby.
Isabella Saleu, a young laywoman working for Caritas Papua New Guinea — the justice, peace, relief, and development agency of the Catholic Church in the country — said she looks forward to the youth festival planned with the pope and believes his visit will be a “spiritually enriching experience” that will reinforce the Catholic identity in the country.
“The world needs us young people and all the enthusiasm we have to make it better, safer, happier and more Christ-like,” Saleu told CNA. “Over the years, the Church has not only evangelized but [also] has contributed immensely to delivering basic services by providing schools and institutions, hospitals, clinics and aid posts, safe houses, and facilities for pastoral and social services.”
“Considering also the recent fateful events of ‘Black Wednesday’ on Jan. 10 that resulted in deaths and hospitalization, as the country came to a standstill when thugs took over the streets of the capital city Port Moresby who looted and burned down shops and caused the city to tremble in fear as police ceased duties, we hope that the papal visit raises our spirits to continue to move forward as a nation,” she added.
To date, over 98% of Papua New Guinea citizens identify as Christian. Catholicism represents the largest Christian denomination in the country with an estimated 4 million people — about 25% of the total population.
Pope Francis’ visit to Papua New Guinea will be his first trip to the country as part of his 11-day Asia Pacific apostolic journey in September. Pope John Paul II visited Papua New Guinea in 1984 and 1995.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 22, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Apr 12, 2024 / 06:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis will travel to the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore later this year, the Vatican announced Friday.
The 11-day multi-country voyage from September 2 to 13 will be the longest international trip of Francis’ papacy.
The trip announcement comes after the 87-year-old pope has slowed down his travel schedule in recent months as health issues have forced him to cancel some public appearances. Francis, who often uses a wheelchair, has not traveled internationally since September 2023.
Indonesia
Pope Francis’ first stop will be Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world. The country’s 229 million Muslims make up more than 12% of the global Muslim population. Nearly all of Indonesia’s Muslims are Sunni.
Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta welcomed the news that the pope will visit Indonesia from Sept. 3 to 6.
“Catholics throughout Indonesia want to shake hands with the pope one by one, but we all know that is impossible,” Suharyo said in a video message announcing the visit.
More than 29 million Christians live in Indonesia, 7 million of which are Catholic. Pope St. Paul VI visited the country in 1970 and Pope St. John Paul II traveled there in 1989.
“Hopefully, with this visit, Indonesian Catholics will become more courageous in voicing the truth and become an example for people of other religions in terms of truly religious life, namely love above all, as the pope always emphasizes,” the Indonesian cardinal told UCA News.
Papua New Guinea
Pope Francis will be the second pope to visit Singapore, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea after John Paul II.
The pope will visit the cities of Port Moresby and Vanimo in Papua New Guinea from September 6 to 9.
Papua New Guinea is a country of nearly nine million people on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. The other side of the island consists of two Indonesian provinces. Papua New Guinea is a nation of considerable cultural diversity, comprised of hundreds of ethnic groups indigenous to the island with 851 indigenous languages spoken in the country.
Nearly all Papua New Guinea citizens are Christians, and 26% of the population is Catholic.
East Timor
The pope’s next stop on his Southeast Asia tour will be Dili, the capital city of East Timor from September 9 to 11.
East Timor is a small country on the island of Timor. It gained independence from Indonesia in 1999, following decades of bloody conflict as the region vied for national sovereignty.
More than 97% of East Timor’s population of 1 million people are Catholic. It is one of only a few Catholic-majority countries in Southeast Asia.
A Catholic bishop from East Timor, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, received the Nobel Peace Prize together with the country’s second president, Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta, in 1996 for their efforts to reach a peaceful and just end to fighting in the country.
The Vatican confirmed in 2022 that Belo has been under disciplinary restrictions since September 2020 due to accusations of sexual abuse of minors.
Singapore
Pope Francis will conclude his trip with a visit to the island country of Singapore from September 11 to 13.
Singapore has the highest GDP per capita in Asia and the second-highest population density of any country in the world. The Archdiocese of Singapore has a diverse population of 395,000 Catholics, offering Masses predominantly in English, Chinese, Tamil, as well as other languages from Southeast Asia.
Nearly 75% of Singapore’s population is ethnic Chinese, according to the 2020 census, which also lists 13% of the population as ethnic Malay and 9% ethnic Indian.
The U.S. Report on International Religious Freedom states that among ethnic Indians in Singapore, 57.3% are Hindu, 23.4% Muslim, and 12.6% Christian. The ethnic Chinese population includes Buddhists (40.4%), Christians (21.6%), Taoists (11.6%), and 25.7% with no religion.
Pope Francis has long expressed interest in visiting Indonesia and other neighboring island nations in Southeast Asia. A papal trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that the pope’s full schedule for this apostolic journey will be published at a later date.
Pope Francis pictured on April 17, 2013. / Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.
Vatican City, Oct 22, 2021 / 11:45 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said in an interview published Friday that he has several international trips in mind for 2022, as he picks up pace f… […]
In October 2016, Archbishop John Ribat became the first cardinal from Papua New Guinea, a South Pacific nation of about 7.5 million people, more than one-quarter of whom are Catholic. But in this geographically remote […]
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