Pope Francis will visit Papua New Guinea and three countries in Asia in September, the Vatican announced on Friday. Source: Crux.
The Pope is scheduled to leave Rome on September 2 and return to the Vatican on September 13.
He will first travel to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where he will land on September 3 and leave on September 6. He will then travel to Papua New Guinea, visiting from September 6 to 9.
From September 9-11, he will be in Timor-Leste, before ending his Asia trip in Singapore.
There is a large variety of Catholic populations in these countries. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, and Catholics number over 8 million, or 3.1 per cent of the population.
Papua New Guinea has a Catholic population of about 2 million, or 32 per cent, while in Timor-Leste, 96 per cent of citizens (one million people) are Catholic. Singapore has 395,000 Catholics, about 3 per cent of the population.
Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta said the news that Francis will be visiting Indonesia “was received very enthusiastically, not only by Catholics.”
“We ask our people to pray much for this visit planned in the first week of September, especially for the health of Pope Francis,” the Cardinal continued.
Cardinal William Goh of Singapore also welcomed the Pope’s upcoming visit.
“It has been 38 years since we had a visit from the Vicar of Christ to Singapore, when Pope St John Paul II honoured us with a visit on 20 November, 1986,” the Cardinal said in a statement.
FULL STORY
Pope Francis to visit Asia and Oceania in September (By Elise Ann Allen, Crux)
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