Pope Francis to Visit Asia, Oceania on 32,000-Kilometer Journey

Asia and Oceania will be stages of a pastoral journey that Pope Francis began on September 2. Despite his age, the Pontiff tirelessly pursues his mission on “the edge of the world.”

Thus, Francis will be in Indonesia (September 2-6), Papua New Guinea (6-8), Timor-Leste (8-10), and Singapore (10-13). And it will be a very tough journey for an 87-year-old man who will travel 32,814 kilometers across two continents and deliver 16 official speeches in 4 countries. This is the 45th trip during his pontificate, bringing the number of countries visited to 65.

The main topics that the Pope will cover in his speeches are dialog and peaceful coexistence between different faiths, harmony between cultures, economic inequality, once again commitment to the fight against climate change, and support for minority churches, that is, those he will visit with the exception of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony where 98% of the population is Catholic.

Along with him will be the Deputy Minister of Culture, Father Antonio Spadaro, who explained to the Italian news agency Adnkronos: “His health is good, and he feels he has the necessary strength to endure this journey. We’ve seen this before: if he doesn’t feel like it, he doesn’t go, as happened with the trip to Congo and South Sudan, which was postponed for health reasons, and the trip to Dubai for COP 28. So, there are no particular concerns from that perspective.” Spadaro also recalled how, when he remarked to the Holy Father how excessive the pace of the past journey had been, Francis replied: “I did not accept the pontificate for recreation.”