VANIMO, Papua New Guinea – Pope Francis traveled to the distant jungles of Papua New Guinea on Sunday to have a good time the Catholic Church within the outskirts, bringing with him loads of medicines, musical instruments and a message of affection for the individuals who live there.
Francis flew aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 transport plane from Port Moresby to Vanimo on the northwest coast of the South Pacific state. There, Francis met with the local Catholic community and the Missionaries from his homeland Argentina who served them.
For an Argentine pope who marveled in 2013 at being chosen from “the end of the earth” to go the Church, it was a journey to the opposite side of the earth, the longest and furthest journey during Francis’ pontificate.
Francis has already traveled to the sting of the Arctic (to apologize to the Inuit for the Church's abuses), the Peruvian Amazon (to boost awareness of the plight) and the plains of Ur in Iraq (to strengthen Christian-Muslim relations). But even by his standards, Sunday's trip to distant Vanimo was extraordinary.
A crowd of an estimated 20,000 people gathered singing and dancing on the sector in front of Vanimo Cathedral as Francis arrived, and he immediately placed on a feather headdress that had been given to him.
Speaking from an elevated platform, Francis praised church staff who strive to spread the religion, but urged Vanimo residents to work from home to be good to 1 one other as well, urging them to be like an orchestra so that every one members of the community can come together harmoniously and overcome rivalries.
In this manner, he said, one could “drive fear, superstition and magic out of the hearts of men and put an end to destructive behaviour such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse – evils that imprison so many of our brothers and sisters and rob them of their happiness.”
It was a reference to the tribal violence over land and other conflicts which have long shaped the country's culture but have turn out to be increasingly deadly lately. Francis got here to Papua New Guinea to call for an end to violence, including gender-based violence, and to be sure that a way of civic responsibility prevails.
Francis began the day with a mass in front of an estimated 35,000 people on the stadium within the capital, Port Moresby. In his homily, Francis told those present that although they could feel distant from their faith and the institutional church, God is near them.
“You who live on this great island in the Pacific Ocean may have sometimes felt like a distant country, on the edge of the world,” Francis said. “But … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to overcome distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each of you is important to him.”
Francis was elected pope largely due to a speech he gave to his fellow cardinals in 2013 concerning the need for the Church to succeed in out to the “peripheries” where people need God most. True to this philosophy, Francis has largely avoided foreign travel to European capitals, as a substitute visiting distant communities where Catholics are sometimes a minority.
Vanimo, with its population of 11,000, is unquestionably distant. It lies near the border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, where the jungle meets the ocean, and is usually only accessible by plane or boat.
There is a small airport but no ambulance lift, the wheelchair lift that Francis must get on and off planes. Because of this and the donated and purchased cargo that Francis brought in, the C-130 was used so he could get on and off the rear ramp.
Francis, the primary Latin American pope in history, also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to function a missionary in Japan, but poor health prevented him from doing so.
As Pope, he often portrayed missionaries as role models for the Church.
The person liable for inviting the Pope to Vanimo was Father Martin Prado, an Argentine missionary from the religious order “Institute of the Incarnate Word”.
While waiting for Francis' arrival on Sunday, he told reporters the “crazy” story of how he accompanied a gaggle of parishioners from Vanimo to Rome in 2019 and at last got an audience with the Pope after his parishioners insisted on giving him some gifts.
Prado, who has spent the last 10 of his 36 years of service as a missionary in Vanimo, said he wrote a note, left it for the pope on the Vatican hotel where he lives, and received an email the following day from Francis' secretary inviting his group.
“I invited him, but he wanted to come,” Prado said. “He has a big heart for people. These are not just words: he does what he says.”
Prado said that deep contained in the diocese, within the jungle where there are still no cars, some people need clothes and for them a plate of rice and tuna is “wonderful.”
Francis brought a cargo of a couple of ton of medicines, clothing, musical instruments and toys, the Vatican said. Prado said Francis was also helping to construct a brand new secondary school. He said half of the diocese's children cannot go to secondary school because there are simply not enough places for them.
The event had a really Argentinian feel: on the stage stood a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, the patron saint of Argentina, who is especially dear to Francis and whose name also adorns the local girls' school. When Francis met privately with the nuns and missionary priests after the event, they served him mate, the Argentinian tea.
Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guineathe second leg of his four-country tour through Southeast Asia and Oceania. After the primary stop in Indonesia, Francis travels to East Timor and ends his visit to Singapore later within the week.
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