Pope Francis is currently on a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour that is expected to highlight environmental threats, emphasize interfaith dialogue and reinforce the importance of Asia for the Catholic Church.
The tour is taking the 87-year-old pontiff to four countries — a trip that adds up to more than 20,000 miles by air.
The visit is being seen as a nod to the importance of Asia, one of the few places where the church is growing in terms of baptized members and religious vocations.
Francis’s first stop was Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. The pope met with Indonesia’s outgoing president, Joko Widodo, and plans to hold a mass for an estimated 80,000 people at a Jakarta stadium.
In Papua New Guinea, Francis will meet missionaries from his native Argentina. The Guardian reported that he will use the stop to address the threat of climate change.
He will then head to East Timor to celebrate mass. However, the visit may force Francis to address the clergy sexual abuse scandal. The Vatican confirmed in 2022 that it had imposed sanctions on a bishop after allegations that he sexually abused young boys during the 1990s.
The pontiff’s last stop will be Singapore, where three-quarters of the population trace their roots to China. Analysts describe the stop as part of the Vatican’s efforts to improve its ties with China, home to an estimated 12 million Catholics.
