It's confirmed: Pope Francis will travel to Indonesia this September 3-6. The Archbishop of Jakarta, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo, and the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference confirmed the reports that have been circulating for weeks.
The trip to the country's captial city of Jakarta had originally been planned for 2022 when the outgoing president invited the Pope. But the visit was postponed due to COVID restrictions.
Indonesia has the largest number of Muslims in the world with more than 242 million. Catholics make up 8.5 million or only 3% of the country's population. But one of the country's cardinals says the groups work to keep an atmosphere of peace.
CARD. IGNATIUS SUHARYO HARDJOATMODJO
Archbishop of Jakarta
The national mosque, called Istiqlal, meaning liberty, or freedom, lies just in front of the cathedral Catholic church in Jakarta. The national mosque was intentionally built at this site as a symbol of harmony.
Indonesia and the Vatican have had good diplomatic relations since 1947. This will be the third time a pope has visited the country. First was Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of his last international trips and in 1989, Pope John Paul II was the second papal visit.
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