Pope Francis starts his longest trip yet as Catholic Church pivots to Asia

Analysis by Christopher Lamb, CNN

(CNN) — He is 87 years old and in recent years has battled health difficulties and begun using a wheelchair. But Pope Francis is currently on the longest trip of his pontificate.

On Tuesday, he landed in Indonesia kicking off a marathon 12-day visit of four countries in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific which also includes Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

It is one of the longest foreign trips any pope has embarked on and marks the furthest geographical distance (32,814 kilometers or about 20,000 miles ) that Francis has traveled since his 2013 election. And on arrival in Jakarta, Pope Francis commented that the more than 13 hour flight over was the longest he has yet done.

The landmark visit will allow this pope to highlight key themes of his pontificate, including inter-religious dialogue and protection of the environment.

The trip also underscores a significant shift taking place inside the Catholic Church: its tilt to Asia.

During his pontificate, Francis’ 44 previous foreign visits have included South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh. He has also appointed cardinals from the Philippines (Luis Antonio Tagle) and South Korea (Lazarus You Heung-sik) to senior positions in the church’s central administration.

The Catholic Church is no longer a Eurocentric or western institution but one where churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America have a growing voice. Francis, who as a young man wanted to be a missionary in Japan, has spoken favorably about male and female church leaders coming from countries outside of Europe.

“Asia has always been among Francis’ priorities,” Fr. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official and close adviser to the pope, told CNN.

Catholics in Asia are often in the minority, although they frequently punch above their weight when it comes to running schools and charitable works.

“The pope is interested not so much in the number of Catholics as the vibrancy,”said Spadaro, who will be travelling with Francis. In many Asian countries, the Jesuit priest explained, the church seeks to act as a “leaven”in trying to serve the “common good,” while Asia “represents the future at this time in the world”.

Interfaith declaration

Often a minority, the churches in Asia are focused on dialogue with other religions, something that will be a central theme of the trip.

While in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim majority country, the pope will take part in a meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, the largest in Southeast Asia. Afterwards, Francis will sign an interfaith declaration with the grand imam of Indonesia and is also expected to visit an underpass linking the mosque and the Catholic cathedral next door known as the “tunnel of friendship.”

“Indonesia and Singapore are countries where the need to negotiate a harmonious co-existence with other religions and with the wider community is an ongoing concern,” Christina Kheng, a Catholic theologian from Singapore who teaches at the East Asian Pastoral Institute, told CNN. “What strands out is the dialogue of daily life that Catholics have with people of all faiths.”

“The pulse of the churches here is quite different from say, those in Europe or US where issues like polarization, secularization and abuse have dominated the headlines,” she added.

Spadaro said the “pope wants to give a signal about dialogue with Islam,” and points out that in East Timor, the government has adopted a landmark human fraternity document — signed by Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb – as a national text.

East Timor is unusual for Asia as 97% the population identifies as Catholic, the highest proportion outside of the Vatican City State.

Michel Chambon, who works at the National University of Singapore and is an expert on Asian Catholicism, said the pope’s visit will help build relations and mutual understanding with these countries.

“The key thing is that the Vatican is not a European state, it is much more than that,” he said.

A giant in the background

Meanwhile, the Vatican’s relationship with China, an officially atheist state where religious practice is heavily curtailed by the government, will be in the background to this visit with Francis pushing ahead with trying to rebuild diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Catholicism is one of five state-recognized faiths in China. But, state-sanctioned Catholic churches were, for decades, run by bishops appointed by Beijing, not the Holy See, until the two sides reached an agreement in 2018. Details of the accord have never been made public and many within China’s underground congregations who have remained loyal to Rome and long faced persecution fear being abandoned.

Although the Holy See-China agreement has faced criticism, the Vatican says the deal is already paying off and hopes to open a permanent office in China. The pope has repeatedly said he would like to visit the country.

Supporters of the patient diplomacy strategy point to the Holy See’s improved relationship with another Communist-governed country: Vietnam. After years of talks, the pope was able to appoint the first resident ambassador in Hanoi at the end of last year.

Francis’ trip will also see him in a part of the world at risk of rising sea levels and natural disasters, with Papua New Guinea a country on the front line of the climate crisis. During his pontificate, the pope has insisted that the protection of the planet is a pressing moral issue, and his trip to the pacific is a chance once again to urge world leaders to take stronger action.

Making this lengthy trip now, after more than 11 years as pope, sends a message to those, including at senior levels in the church, hoping that this pontificate is running out of steam. Spadaro says it underlines the “liveliness of the pontificate at this moment.”

Francis will travel, as normal, with a doctor and two nurses. There are risks with making such a long and gruelling visit at his age. But this is a pope willing to take risks and pull off surprises. And he is determined to make one of the most ambitious trips of his pontificate.

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