Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Asia and Oceania is “an act of humility” before God which will affect all those who care about peace in the world, says a top Catholic cardinal.
The pope’s lengthy trip from Sept. 2-13 is not intended to break records but in “obedience to mission,” said Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle in an interview, Fides reported on Aug. 27.
The visit “is a sign of his paternal closeness to what he calls ‘existential peripheries,’” Tagle said.
“I am younger than the Pope, and these long journeys are heavy even for me… It’s not a show to portray what one is still capable of,” Tagle emphasized.
Francis, 87, is slated to visit Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Singapore from Sept. 2 in what has been termed the longest apostolic journey of his 11-year pontificate.
Tagle, who serves as the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, dismissed rumors that Francis “prefers” one continent or part of the world, or despises other parts as “a false interpretation of papal journeys.”
He pointed out that Francis has visited many countries in many regions of Europe and is scheduled to visit Luxembourg and Belgium after he visits Asia and Oceania.
“It seems to me that, with these journeys, he wants to encourage Catholics in all the contexts in which they find themselves,” Tagle said.
Asia is home to two-thirds of the world’s population, “a majority of whom are poor,” Tagle emphasized adding that “there are many baptisms among the poor.”
According to the United Nations Population Fund’s latest data, the Asia and the Pacific region is home to 60 percent of the world’s population – some 4.3 billion people – and includes the world’s most populous countries, China and India.
The Asian Development Bank estimates that some 1.7 billion people (39.5 percent) of the region’s total population are poor and are living on less than US$2 a day.
“Pope Francis knows that there are many poor people in those areas, and among the poor, there is an attraction to the figure of Jesus and to the Gospel, even [during] war, persecution, and conflict,” Tagle emphasized.
He added that Francis’ visit to the region is particularly important for the civil authorities in the region as he remains a “powerful symbol of human coexistence in a spirit of fraternity and for the care of Creation.”
Tagle lauded Muslim-majority Indonesia for its huge diversity of cultural, linguistic, social, and economic situations.
“The great gift of the Holy Spirit to the Indonesian Catholic community is that of a coexistence that does not deny diversity,” Tagle said adding that Francis’ visit will bring “new lifeblood to the fraternity between believers of different religions.”
Tagle pointed out that the young Catholic Church in PNG has already given the universal Church a martyr, Peter To Rot, who was also a catechist.
Despite the occasional tribal conflicts in PNG, “diversity can be a resource” in the multicultural nation, Tagle said.
“If we suspend our preconceptions, even in tribal cultures, we can find human values close to Christian ideals,” Tagle added.
Tagle also lauded the good relationship between the government and the church in Timor-Leste and lauded the freedom of worship guaranteed in Singapore.
Tagle also warned about the trend and temptation to interpret the history of the missions “with today’s cultural patterns and to impose our visions on missionaries who lived centuries ago.”
