Pope Francis embarks on his longest journey yet – at age 87 – DW – 09/02/2024

Never before has a pope undertaken a trip at such an advanced age: Pope Francis, who turns 88 in December, is heading to Southeast Asia and Oceania, despite often being confined to a wheelchair.

During the 12 days from September 2 to 13, he will have stopovers in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. The planned seven flights mean the leader of the Catholic Church is likely to spend a good 43 hours in the air, flying thousands of kilometres, including over the equator.

But the Pope is eager to visit the region, which, seen from Rome, seems on the edge of the world.

It is very important “that Francis travels to these regions and meets people personally on the growing Asian continent,” Frank Kraus, head of the international department of the Aachen-based Catholic charity Missio, told DW.

He said that many of Missio’s partners had told the organization how important this trip was.

“It is not a fringe area of ​​the church, but a living part of the world church,” Kraus said.

Multi-religious region

The Asian region, which includes India and China, is becoming increasingly important, not only economically and politically, but also for the Catholic Church, Kraus said.

He said that there are many religions and worldviews represented in the region. At present, the church is focusing on the contributions that Christians, even as a minority, can make to the societies of their countries and the continent in general.

In his 16 planned speeches, Pope Francis will be able to recount the main focuses of his pontificate, which began in March 2013. In Indonesia, his first stop, he will visit a country with the world’s largest Muslim population and a form of Islam that is very open to interfaith dialogue. In Papua New Guinea, people are deeply concerned about the exploitation of nature by corporations and the consequences of climate change. East Timor, for its part, is still struggling to establish an identity, more than 20 years after gaining independence.

In October, delegates from all the pope’s current destinations will come to Rome for the ordinary general assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The focus will be on “synodality” — a more active general participation of all the faithful in the church’s affairs.

However, the issue of abuse is also likely to be raised as a matter of concern to the church globally. East Timorese Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, perhaps the region’s best-known Catholic cleric, who jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, has faced allegations of sexual abuse in recent years and has withdrawn from the public eye.

‘Papal trips have become essential’

It is Francis’ 45th international trip, after almost a year in which he did not leave Italy. John Paul II (1978-2002) was the only pope to make more trips during his long pontificate — 104 in all.

It seems that traveling to all corners of the world is a regular part of a pope’s agenda these days.

“Today, travel is an essential part of papal activities and has almost become essential,” Jörg Ernesti, a theology professor from Augsburg who researches recent papal history, told DW.

It was only 60 years ago that Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) surprised his church and the world by announcing an international trip. In early 1964, he flew to the Holy Land, the place where Jesus was said to have lived. Never before had a pope traveled by plane, despite the high ground long attributed to the office.

According to Ernesti, Paul VI took a very thoughtful approach and developed a concept of “apostolic journeys,” as papal journeys are called in the Vatican. For that reason, Ernesti said, journeys should always include meetings with the leaders of a country, with young people, and with representatives of Judaism and other non-Christian religions.

Paul VI was not in favor of the regional churches coming to the pope, Ernesti said, adding, “That would have been centralist thinking.” By visiting the regional churches, he wanted to show his appreciation, the researcher said. It was only during the trips of Pope John Paul II that accusations of “neocentralism,” the orientation of everyone toward Rome, were heard frequently again.

So far, Pope Francis has visited almost every part of the world, except Oceania, during his travels. He has visited countries in the Islamic world with remarkable frequency. However, he has skipped his home country of Argentina and many Western European countries, as well as China and Russia. These countries are still blank on the agenda of the Vatican’s travel diplomacy.

When Ernesti speaks of Francis’s travels, he uses an expression that Kraus of Missio also used: “going to the periphery.” This, he says, is something the Pope “recommends to the Church and its priests, and puts into practice with his travels.”

As of October, Pope Francis will be the second oldest pope ever, behind only Leo XIII, who died in 1903 at age 93. In recent years, Francis has been hospitalized and has undergone multiple surgeries — his advanced years are showing. All of this has also affected his travel plans, partly because of his limited mobility.

‘The limits of physical resilience’

Jörg Ernesti sees the age of the Pope as a growing problem.

“I don’t think the problem of the aging of the pope has really been thought about in the church,” he said. “Things are reaching their limits. Now the pope’s travel schedule has been cut back considerably and the media presence is limited.”

He remembered Paul VI, who in 1970, at the age of 73, travelled eastwards, also visiting Indonesia and Oceania.

“That was just too much for him. Eventually he really collapsed physically, partly due to the humid climate in East Asia. The Pope then realized that as an old man who had just recovered from cancer, he was reaching his limits,” Ernesti said.

After this trip, Paul VI did not leave Italy again until his death in 1978.

“The great importance, and not only the symbolic importance, of these journeys, the limits of physical resilience – all this must be taken into account when one sees the advanced age of the pope,” Ernesti said.

Pope Francis and the Worldwide Church

Frank Kraus of Missio is pleased that the Pope is traveling to the remote region despite his physical limitations. He says: “He is doing exactly what we expect of him.”

Kraus said Missio had heard from its partners in Asia and Oceania that people there were very aware of the pressure the 87-year-old was taking on to visit them.

The pope wants to “travel to all regions and tries to listen to everyone,” he said. This all-encompassing concept is also evident in the cardinals appointed by Francis, Kraus said.

“The church is seen as a global organization. With this pope it has become global.”

This article has been translated from German.