Cloudy skies, a humid, gray fog thickening over the megalopolis of 11 million inhabitants, skyscrapers fading into the toxic fog. The weather is not the best, but the Pope does not care. «Thank you for your company, I think this is the longest journey I have ever made,» he smiles on the plane that took him this Tuesday to Jakarta.
He greeted the journalists one after the other, walking along the corridors between the chairs leaning on his cane, with a serene, joking and excited air when a journalist gave him a gift from the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, one of the torches used by shipwrecked migrants: «This interests me».
Francisco’s 45th international trip will also be his longestYesterday’s 13-hour flight is just the beginning a 12 day trip across Asia and Oceana, 32,814 kilometers and seven planes between Indonesia, Pope New Guinea, East Timor AND Singaporeuntil September 13th.
And to think that a year ago, on his return from Mongolia and on the eve of his last journey to MarseilleHe said that traveling now for him «is not as easy as it was at the beginning, there are limitations in walking, but we’ll see,» and joked about a possible visit to Vietnam: «If I don’t go, John XXIV will.» Bergoglio will turn 88 in December, but he has no intention of slowing downdespite the bronchitis, the wheelchair or the stick, the ailments of old age, the four time zones to cross and the humidity peaks of the Southeast Asia.
The program is tight, but it includes moments of rest. As soon as he landed, Francis headed to the Apostolic Nunciature, where this Tuesday he rested to recover from dysrhythmia. Meetings with the authorities and the first public appointments begin on Wednesday. However, after his arrival he found time to receive a group of refugees welcomed by the Jesuit Refugee Serviceorphaned children raised by Dominican nuns and elderly, migrants and homeless people accompanied by the Community of San Egidio. The health of the Pontiff, as always, will be monitored by a doctor and two nurses, in addition to his personal health assistant.
After all, it is a trip that Francis tenaciously wanted to make, scheduled for 2020 and cancelled due to the pandemic, one more stop on a journey marked by the conviction that he has shown since the beginning of his pontificate: «Asia is the future of the Church». Certainly, the themes to be displayed in the 16 interventions planned They are numerous, almost a compendium of his pontificate: peace, dialogue between religions and in particular with Islam, climate change and the rising oceans, the uncontrolled development of the economy to the detriment of the poorest, the attention to the «geographical and existential peripheries» and to the small Catholic communities in constant growth, the welcoming of migrants and refugees or paedophilia in the clergy.
But on a journey that ends in Singapore, where three-quarters of the population are ethnic Chinese, In the background, Bergoglio’s great dream: to visit ChinaHim Middle Kingdom which four centuries ago his brother Matteo Ricci managed to enter, the promised land of the Jesuit missionaries. Dialogue with Beijing is Francisco’s priority and it goes ahead with respect to the first and historic provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops signed in 2018 and since then renewed every two years, in 2020 and 2022: in October it will be extended for the third time. In the meantime, two bishops from the People’s Republic of China participated in last year’s synod and are also expected at the assembly next autumn. This was explained by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope’s Secretary of State The Holy See hopes for a “stable presence in China”if not yet a formal representation, it is a first step to mend the diplomatic rift of 1951, after Mao’s revolution, when the nuncio Antonio Riberi was expelled from the country. Francis thus continues his trip to China, which began 10 years ago in Korea and continued with the trips to Sri Lanka, Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Japan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
Indonesia It is the largest archipelago in the world, with 17,504 islands scattered across the ocean on both sides of the equator, and at the same time the most populous of the Muslim-majority countriesreligion professed by 87% of the 275 million Indonesians. Catholics are 3%.
Climate change, environmental protection against the theft of natural resources and peace will therefore be at the centre of Francis’ reflections from the first stage until Friday.
In addition to the meetings with the authorities and the Christian community, the Pope’s visit tomorrow, Thursday, is highly anticipated. Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, the largest in Southeast Asiadesigned in 1954 by a Christian architect and since 2019 connected to the Cathedral of the Assumption by a tunnel of friendship: almost the symbol of a country that has managed to guarantee religious pluralism despite the recurring threats from radical Islamists.
