Pope Francis commenced a four-nation tour Monday, beginning in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, with a main concentrate on fostering interfaith relations.
The pontiff left Rome on Monday afternoon and is because of land in Jakarta on Tuesday morning (round 0430 GMT), the primary cease in a 12-day voyage that will even absorb Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.
Covering some 32,000 kilometers (virtually 20,000 miles), the tour – the longest and farthest of his 11 years main the worldwide Catholic Church – will take a look at Francis’ more and more fragile well being.
But in latest weeks the pontiff has appeared in good spirits, and he’s typically energized by being amongst his flock.
Catholics at present signify fewer than 3% of the inhabitants of Indonesia – some eight million individuals, in comparison with the 87%, or 242 million, who’re Muslim.
But they’re one in all six formally acknowledged religions or denominations within the secular nation, additionally together with Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
On Thursday Francis will meet representatives of all six at Istiqlal Mosque, the most important in Southeast Asia and a logo of non secular co-existence.
It is linked through a “tunnel of friendship” to the cathedral throughout the street, the place Christians in latest days have been taking selfies with a life-sized cutout of the pope.
At the mosque, Pope Francis will signal a joint declaration with the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar.
The assertion will concentrate on “dehumanization,” notably the unfold of violence and battle, notably to ladies and kids, in addition to environmental degradation, in accordance with the Indonesian bishops’ convention.
Francis has repeatedly urged the world to do extra to fight local weather change and mitigate its results – together with rising sea ranges, which threaten the closely polluted megalopolis of Jakarta.
Security is tight for the three-day go to, with the navy, police and members of the president’s personal element amongst greater than 4,000 legislation enforcement officers deployed.
A brand new billboard advert declaring “Welcome Pope Francis” has been put up in central Jakarta, whereas the federal government has ordered a particular stamp in his honor.
It is the third papal go to to Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,500 islands, after Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989.
The impartial Jakarta Post newspaper hailed the go to in an editorial Monday as “highly significant for the advancement of interreligious relations” each in Indonesia and overseas.
The Jakarta-based Journalists’ Union for Diversity (SEJUK) informed AFP it had recorded eight violations of non secular freedom in August alone, together with the banning of church building, assaults on temples and assaults.
But Michel Chambon, a theologian and anthropologist on the National University of Singapore, stated the pope can be urgent a wider message he has already delivered in different Muslim-majority international locations, from Iraq to Bahrain, Türkiye and Morocco.
The go to “is not really aimed at Catholics in Indonesia” however is meant to focus on the worldwide significance of Islamic-Christian dialogue, he informed AFP.
“There are divisions even within the Catholic Church. Some leaders think that good interreligious dialogue is all well and good, but that it will not go further than peaceful coexistence,” he added.
Fragile well being
Francis will meet outgoing President Joko Widodo throughout his go to and maintain conferences with younger individuals, diplomats and native clergy.
He will even preside over a mass in an 80,000-seat stadium, one in all a number of such occasions throughout the tour, the forty fifth abroad journey of his papacy.
Originally deliberate for 2020 however postponed as a result of Covid pandemic, the go to takes place simply three months earlier than his 88th birthday.
The Argentine now routinely makes use of a wheelchair to maneuver round, underwent hernia surgical procedure final 12 months and has been tormented by respiratory points.
He has not traveled overseas since visiting Marseille in France in September 2023, having canceled a deliberate handle at United Nations local weather talks in Dubai two months later.
He might be touring to Indonesia together with his private physician and two nurses, however Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated that is regular, saying no further precautions have been in place.
Source: www.dailysabah.com