The Southern Cross | October 2024

Pope Francis has described the Church outside Europe as “much larger and more alive” after completing the longest international journey of his pontificate last month.

At the General Audience in St Peter’s Square on September 18 he reflected on his apostolic visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore where he saw “living and joyful faith”.

The Pope recalled that in 1970, Paul VI became the first Pope to fly “towards the rising sun”, visiting the Philippines and Australia extensively, while also stopping in several Asian countries and Samoa.

“I tried to follow his example, but with a few more years on me than he had at the time, I limited my visit to four countries,” the 87-year-old Pope said.

“I thank the Lord who granted me the opportunity to do as an old Pope what I would have wanted to do as a young Jesuit!”

The Pope acknowledged that the church remained too “Eurocentric” or “Western”, noting that it is so much greater than any one geographical region.

He praised those churches that grow “not by proselytising” but by “attraction”.

With Catholics in Indonesia about three per cent of the population, Pope Francis said he encountered a “lively, dynamic Church, capable of living and transmitting the Gospel in that country, which has a very noble culture inclined to harmonise differences, and at the same time has the largest Muslim presence in the world”.

Turning to Papua New Guinea, the Pope said he found there the “beauty of a missionary Church.”

“My heart was gladdened to be with today’s missionaries and catechists for a while; and I was moved to hear the songs and music of the young people,” he said.

“In them, I saw a new future, without tribal violence, without dependencies, without economic or ideological colonialisms; a future of fraternity and care for the wonderful natural environment.”

Papua New Guinea can serve as a “laboratory” for this model of integral development, inspired by the “leaven” of the Gospel, he continued.

In Timor-Leste, the most Catholic country in Asia, he was “struck by the beauty of those people: a people tested but joyful, a people wise in suffering, a people that not only brings forth many children but teaches them to smile”.

“I will never forget the smiles of the children,” Pope Francis said.

While Christians in Singapore are a minority, he commended them for forming a living Church, committed to generating harmony and fraternity among different ethnicities, cultures and religions.

Source: Vatican News