TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Pope wraps up Indonesia leg of grueling Asia-Pacific tour
The 87-year-old appeared fit and smiling during his three-day visit despite a hectic schedule and intense heat, presiding over a mass on Thursday of more than 80,000 people at a football stadium.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
In this handout picture released by the Vatican Press Office on September 6, 2024 Pope Francis (center) boards a plane for his departure from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby. (AFP/Handout)
P
ope Francis left Indonesia for Papua New Guinea Friday on the second leg of an arduous 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific, after delivering a message of religious unity in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation.
The 87-year-old appeared fit and smiling during his three-day visit despite a hectic schedule and intense heat, presiding over a mass on Thursday of more than 80,000 people at a football stadium.
A formal leaving ceremony with an honour guard was held at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport, where the papal plane took off for Papua New Guinean capital Port Moresby shortly after 1030 am local time (0330 GMT).
He will land there in the evening and his official schedule had no other events planned for the rest of the day.
Thousands of people waited outside the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Jakarta, shouting and trying to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he left for the airport.
In the capital Francis also signed a declaration with the grand imam of Istiqlal mosque calling for action against religiously inspired violence and climate change.
He will stay until September 9 in Papua New Guinea, the multi-ethnic Pacific country where the majority of the population is Christian, mostly Protestant.
The former Australian colony of nine million inhabitants, visited by John Paul II in 1984 and 1995, is regularly plagued by tribal violence, and in January saw deadly riots in the wake of anti-government protests against wage cuts.
Francis could also renew calls for greater protection of the environment, in a country that has recorded extensive deforestation in recent decades and has been hit by natural disasters.
On a one-day trip to Vanimo, a northwest Papua New Guinean town of 10,000, he is expected to focus on the spread of Christianity through evangelism.
Francis will take part in a brief ceremony on arrival in Port Moresby late Friday afternoon, and then head to the Vatican embassy for the evening. His first public event in the country will be an address to political leaders on Saturday morning.
With Friday's flight, the pope will have travelled about 16,000 km (about 10,000 miles) on the overseas trip, his longest yet. By the time he returns to Rome, he will have clocked nearly 33,000 km (20,500 miles).
On Monday he will travel to Timor Leste and then Singapore, where he will wrap up the longest and farthest tour of his 11-year papacy.
