AFP
The Pope has flown to Indonesia, the first stop on his Asian tour
Pope Francis, 87, flew to Indonesia on Monday for a three-day visit focused on inter-religious dialogue, the first leg of his marathon tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Jorge Bergoglio’s plane took off from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 5:32 p.m. (1532 GMT), according to AFP journalists on board. He is due to land Tuesday morning (0430 GMT) in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the first stop on a tour that will then take him to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. This 12-day, 32,000 km journey – the longest and most distant since his election in 2013 – is a physical challenge beyond the norm for the Argentinian Jesuit, who has suffered health problems in recent years but often appears invigorated by his travels and contact with the faithful. After Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989, he is the third pope to visit the archipelago of 17,500 islands, where there are some eight million Catholics – less than 3% of the population – compared to the highest number of Muslims on the planet (242 million, 87%). In Jakarta, a polluted megalopolis threatened by flooding, the Pope, who has made environmental protection a leitmotif of his pontificate, could launch a new cry of alarm against global warming. But this visit will be structured above all around Islamic-Christian dialogue, with an inter-religious meeting on Thursday in the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, in the presence of representatives of the six official faiths (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism). The pope will sign a joint declaration with the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, which will have two main themes: the “dehumanization” linked to conflicts and violence against children and women, and the protection of the environment, said the president of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference, Antonius Subianto Bunjamin. The Istiqlal Mosque is next to the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption and the authorities built a “tunnel of friendship” in 2020 to connect the two buildings, a symbol of religious fraternity. A message wishing “Welcome Pope Francis” was visible on Monday on a huge scrolling billboard in central Jakarta, while the government issued a special stamp in his honor. – “Clarification” – This visit is “very important for the advancement of inter-religious relations” in the country and abroad, the independent Indonesian newspaper Jakarta Post said in an editorial on Monday. However, “there are dissensions within the of the Catholic Church. Some leaders believe that good inter-religious dialogue is all well and good, but we will not go further than peaceful coexistence,” Michel Chambon, a theologian and anthropologist and researcher at the National University of Singapore, told AFP. Observers point to growing discrimination against religious minorities, particularly Christians in some regions, and voices are being raised to call on the government to take action. In August, the Journalists’ Union for Diversity (Sejuk) recorded eight cases of violations of religious freedom, such as acts of violence against places of worship, refusals of building permits and assaults, its director, Ahmad Junaidi, told AFP. Francis has visited Muslim-majority countries several times and signed a document on human fraternity with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi in 2019. In Jakarta, Francis will meet with outgoing President Joko Widodo, preside over a mass in a stadium in 80,000 seats and will deliver several speeches, including one to the authorities and the diplomatic corps. This trip, the 45th of the Argentine pope abroad, was initially planned for 2020 but had been postponed due to the pandemic. Since then, the leader of the 1.3 billion Catholics, who will be 88 in December, has undergone a major abdominal operation in 2023 and has suffered from respiratory infections. He now only moves around in a wheelchair or with the help of a cane. Despite the physical constraints of such a trip, the medical arrangements have not been changed: Francis will travel with his doctor and two nurses, the Vatican said.bur-cmk/gab/mba/ial/
