Pope Francis will visit the Asian countries of Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Singapore, as well as Papua New Guinea in Oceania, from September 2 to 13 this year, according to the Holy See Press Office on Friday.
It will be his 43rd Apostolic Journey abroad, upon the invitation of the Heads of State and local Church authorities.
He will leave Rome on September 2 and return to it on September 13.
He will first visit the capital city of Jakarta in Indonesia from September 3 remain until September 6. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, with Catholic population of over 8 million, or 3.1 percent of its total.
From there, the Holy Father will fly east to visit Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, and Vanimo from September 6 to 9. Around 32 percent of Papua New Guinea’s population are Catholic, which is around 2 million.
His next stop will be in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, from September 9 to 11. Timor-Leste is overwhelmingly Catholic, accounting for around 96 percent of the population, counting over 1 million people.
The Holy Father will be in Singapore from September 11 to 13. Some 395,000 Catholics live in Singapore, representing around 3 percent of the population.
The full program of his Apostolic Journey will be published at a later date, according to the Holy See Press Office.
Pope Francis first mentioned the possibility of traveling to the region in December 2023 last year.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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