Pope concludes tour in Indonesia

Pope Francis left Indonesia on Friday for Papua New Guinea, the second leg of an arduous 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region, after delivering a message of religious unity in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Despite his hectic schedule and intense heat, the 87-year-old appeared fit and smiling during his three-day visit, presiding over a mass attended by more than 80,000 people at a football stadium on Thursday.

An official farewell ceremony with a guard of honour was held at Jakarta International Airport, where the papal plane took off for Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, shortly after 10.30am local time (03.30 GMT).

He will land there in the evening and his official schedule did not include any other events for the rest of the day.

Thousands of Indonesians waited outside the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Jakarta, shouting and trying to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he headed to the airport.

In the Indonesian capital, Francis also signed a declaration with the grand imam of the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, calling for action against religious violence and climate change.

He will remain until September 9 in Papua New Guinea, a multi-ethnic country in the Pacific where the majority of the population is Christian, mostly Protestant.

The former Australian colony of nine million, visited by John Paul II in 1984 and 1995, is regularly plagued by tribal violence and in January saw a deadly riot following anti-government protests over wage cuts.

Francis could also renew calls for greater environmental protection, in a country that has seen intense deforestation and been hit by natural disasters in recent decades.

During a day trip to Vanimo, a town of 10,000 people in northwest Papua New Guinea, he is expected to focus on spreading Christianity through evangelism.

On Monday he will travel to East Timor and then to Singapore, where he will conclude the longest and most far-reaching tour of his 11-year papacy.

AFP