Pope Francis made an important trip to one of the more remote places for Christianity: Southeast Asia and Oceania-places where the Catholic Church is less prominent and the last papal visit was decades ago.
In Indonesia, the most important message was this image:
…these affectionate gestures between the imam of the Jakarta mosque and the Pope. The two sent a message against religious fundamentalism in the country with the most Muslims in the world.
Although Indonesia guarantees freedom of worship for Christians, this tolerance has been threatened in recent years by terrorist attacks against churches. For example, in 2018 and 2021, there were seven fatalities in addition to the suicide bombers.
At the mosque, the eyes of the Muslim world were on Pope Francis. There, he gracefully maneuvered around a delicate obstacle: that of evangelization among Muslims, which in some countries causes discrimination or even persecution. The Pope responded by reminding public institutions that Christians will always be at the service of the common good and there is a type of evangelization that he rejects—the one that does not respect the person.
POPE FRANCIS
The Catholic Church places itself at the service of the common good and wants to strengthen collaboration with public institutions and other entities in civil society, but never proselytizing, ever. It respects the faith of each person.
In Papua New Guinea, the Pope continued with his eloquent gestures. He reminded the entire Church of its missionary identity, because, in addition to official and protocol meetings, he visited a remote place to be with the missionaries who live there.
At his third stop, in East Timor, Pope Francis' most important message was to young people. This country has a strong Catholic tradition and is one of the poorest in the world. And at the same time, violence is a constant problem both in and outside the family. For this reason, the Pope asked the young people not to let themselves be crushed by difficulties and to invest their energy in projects that will help them to break out of the vicious cycle they live in.
POPE FRANCIS
A man, a woman, a young man, a young woman who doesn't control himself is a slave. He is dependent. He is not free.
A young man has to dream. And how do you dream, Father? Do you drink alcohol? No. If you do that, you will have nightmares. I invite you to dream, to dream big things. A young man who does not dream is retired from life.
On a spiritual level, the Pope also offered profound reflections in challenging places, like this center for the care of children with disabilities.
POPE FRANCIS
When Jesus speaks of the Last Judgement he tells some to come with me. But he does not tell them to come with me because they were baptized, because they were confirmed, because they were married in the Church, because they did not lie, because they did not steal. No. Come with me because you took care of me.
Pope Francis was struck by what he saw before him: the affection and care this group of nuns gave to mutilated and abandoned children.
POPE FRANCIS
I want to thank them for what they do. And I also want to thank the girls and the boys who give us the testimony of letting themselves be taken care of. Because they teach us how we should let ourselves be cared for by God.
The trip was also filled with inspiring testimonies like this 87-year-old catechist who used to walk as far as 6 miles to teach his classes—no matter the weather. He retired at age 82 and the Pope dedicated this comment to him:
It seems that this man competes with the apostle St. Paul.
During that same meeting, Pope Francis also pondered the challenge of instilling the faith in any given culture.
POPE FRANCIS
The preaching of the faith must be inculturated in your culture and your culture must be evangelized. And this applies to all peoples, not only to you.
The last stop was to a strategic country: Singapore—which boasts one of the largest economies in the world. It's a country close to China but still maintains good relations with the West. There, Pope Francis reiterated each country's responsibility to build peace and urged them to make every possible diplomatic move to achieve it. Leaving Singapore marked the end to the longest trip of Francis' pontificate—a journey which left images that had not been seen for decades: that of a pope traveling to lands so far from Rome.
JRB
TR: KG
