Pope Francis is on an ITA Airways plane en route to Asia and Oceania to undertake the longest foreign trip of his papacy. Source: CNS.
The plane carrying the Pope, top Vatican officials and about 75 journalists took off from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 5.32pm Rome time (1.32am AEST) on what was scheduled to be a 13-hour flight to Jakarta, Indonesia, the first stop on the Pope’s four-nation apostolic visit.
The 87-year-old Pope is expected to cover more than 32,000 kms during his September 2-13 visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation and a member of the papal entourage, told Fides, his dicastery’s news agency, that the Pope was not trying to set a record or prove a point about his stamina.
Rather, he said, subjecting himself to the rigours of such a long trip “is an act of humility before the Lord who calls us – an act of humility and obedience to the mission.”
Pope Francis “wants to encourage Catholics in all the contexts in which they find themselves,” the Cardinal said in the interview published last week.
“Asia is home to two-thirds of the world’s population. The majority of these people are poor. And there are many baptisms among the poor. Pope Francis knows that there are many poor in those areas, and among the poor there is an attraction to the figure of Jesus and to the Gospel, even in the midst of war, persecution and conflict.”
Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister, told the Italian magazine L’Espresso that the trip “incarnates” Pope Francis’ constant call for Catholics to go out to the “peripheries”.
The trip to Asia and Oceania, he said, does so “certainly from a geographical point of view, but also in light of the great cultural and religious diversity of the countries he will visit. From this perspective, the trip represents the concern and closeness of the Holy Father to everyone – Catholics and non-Catholics – based on the conviction that we are fratelli tutti” – all brothers and sisters.
FULL STORY
Pope sets off on longest trip of his pontificate (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
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