Pope Francis will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore between September 2 and 13, the Vatican announced this Friday, in what will be his longest trip since his election as supreme pontiff in 2013.
This will be the leader of the Catholic Church’s first trip abroad in a year, and quite a challenge given his numerous health problems in recent months, which forced him to cancel several commitments.
The announcement comes days after the pope’s health was again a cause for concern. On Good Friday, this past March 29, he had to cancel his participation in the Stations of the Cross at the last minute. On Palm Sunday, he was also not able to deliver the planned homily.
In recent years, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 87, who has been using a wheelchair for two years, has had numerous health problems, particularly in his knees, hips and colon, as well as breathing difficulties.
The tour is announced as ambitious for the head of the Catholic Church, since it involves more than 30 hours of flight, an eight-hour jet lag and a series of meetings and masses.
Francis also plans three trips soon within Italy, the first of which will be to Venice on April 28.
Since his election in 2013, the pope has made 44 trips abroad, the last of them to Marseille, in the south of France, last September.
Until now, the longest had been the one to Cuba and the United States, which lasted almost 9 days, while it will also be the first time that the journey includes four countries.
As the Indonesian authorities had explained, the pope’s visit was scheduled for 2020, but due to the Covid 19 pandemic it was postponed.
For Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, it will be the third visit by a pontiff, since the first pope to travel to the archipelago was Paul VI, who on December 3, 1970, on the last of his international apostolic trips, stopped in Jakarta. , where he was warmly received by then-President Suharto.
From October 8 to 12, 1989, Pope John Paul II traveled to Indonesia on a trip that was marked by an open-air mass at the Jakarta stadium, and by stops in Medan, North Sumatra, Yogyakarta, in central Java and Flores and on that same trip, Karol Wojtyla also went to Dili, in what was then still the Indonesian province of East Timor.
While John Paul II also traveled to Singapore in 1986, on his trip to several Asian countries.
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