Pope Francis will take an overseas trip in September, a nearly two-week long tour of Asia and Oceania, with stops in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Singapore, the Vatican announced on Friday.
Timorese President José Ramos-Horta responded to the announcement with an entreaty to the “leaders and citizens, Catholics and believers of all other faiths to join hands, collaborate and work to receive our greatest leader with great joy and consecrate Timor Leste as a land of human fraternity.”
The government of Timor Leste, one of only two majority-Catholic Asian countries, has already made available 10.9 million euros to organise activities for the papal visit as well as a Vatican mission to the country in June.
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Outreach is one of the hallmarks of Francis’ pontificate, in spite of recurring health problems. In 2023, he visited Mongolia, even though its Catholic population is just 1,500.
The upcoming trip will be the longest of his 11-year papacy. The whirlwind tour has him scheduled to visit Jakarta (3-6 September) before travelling to Port Moresby and Vanimo (6-9 September) then Dili (9-11 September), then wrapping things up in Singapore (11-13 September).
Of the stops, Timor-Leste has by far the highest proportion of Catholics in the population (97.6%), followed by Papua New Guinea (26%), Singapore (7%) and Indonesia (3%). However, the sheer size of Indonesia – the fourth most populated country in the world – means that its population of 8 million Catholics far exceeds the others.
