JAKARTA: Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore from September 2 to 13 this year.
During his visit, he plans to meet with heads of state, youth groups, local clergy, missionaries, and parishioners. The Vatican’s provisional schedule outlines his participation in four public masses at stadiums in Jakarta, Port Moresby, Dili, and Singapore.
According to Bishop Tighe, Pope Francis has long been drawn to Asia and wishes to support local churches and countries while learning from them. He expressed this sentiment during a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China, on June 25.
In Jakarta, Pope Francis will engage in an interfaith meeting at the Istiqlal Mosque and meet with Indonesia’s president, in a country where over 3% of the nearly 280 million population is Catholic. Bishop Tighe highlighted the pope’s interest in the Church’s future and the diversity of global Catholicism beyond Western perspectives.
This trip marks Pope Francis’s first international visit since his two-day trip to Marseille, France, in September 2023, and it will be the longest time he has spent away from Rome during his 11-year papacy.
As he approaches his 88th birthday in December 2024 and faces health challenges that have occasionally affected his schedule, including missing the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai in November 2023, Bishop Tighe emphasized the symbolic significance of this ambitious journey for the pontiff.
From September 3 to 6, Pope Francis will be in Indonesia, followed by Papua New Guinea from September 6 to 9, and Timor-Leste from September 9 to 11. His final leg in Singapore from September 11 to 13 will include visits to St.
Theresa’s Home and Catholic Junior College. Pope Francis has previously visited several Asian countries, including South Korea in 2014, as well as Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2015.
