Pope Francis honored the Catholic Church of the peripheries on Sunday as he celebrated Mass in Papua New Guinea before heading to a distant a part of the South Pacific nation with a ton of humanitarian aid to deliver to the missionaries and faithful who live there.
An estimated 35,000 people filled the stadium within the capital Port Moresby for the morning Mass. It began with dancers in grass skirts and feathered headdresses performing to traditional drum beats as priests in green vestments processed up onto the altar.
In his homily, Francis told the gang that they may feel themselves distant from each their faith and the institutional church, but that God was near to them.
“You who continue to exist this massive island within the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have considered yourselves as a far-off and distant land, situated at the sting of the world,” Francis said. “Yet … today the Lord desires to draw near to you, to interrupt down distances, to let that you simply are at the middle of his heart and that every one in every of you is very important to him.”
Francis was himself traveling to a distant land on Sunday, flying into distant Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s northwest coast, to fulfill with the small Catholic community there served by missionaries from his native Argentina.
Francis was being transported by an Australian military aircraft and was bringing with him one ton of humanitarian aid, including medicine, clothes and toys for kids, in response to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Eight suitcases of medication and other necessities had been prepared by one in every of the Argentine missionaries, the Rev. Alejandro Diaz, during a recent trip to Rome and left with the Vatican to usher in on the cargo plane, the ANSA news agency reported.
Francis has long prioritized the church on the “peripheries,” saying it is definitely more necessary than the middle of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring as a substitute far-flung communities where Catholics are sometimes a minority.
Vanimo, population 11,000, definitely suits the bill. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, the coastal city is maybe best referred to as a browsing destination.
Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has 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 was prevented from going due to his poor health.
Now as pope, he has often held up missionaries as models for the church, especially those that have sacrificed to bring the religion to far-flung places.
Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor after which wraps up his visit in Singapore later within the week.
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