Pope holds Mass at world’s ‘edge’
PORT MORESBY—Pope Francis held an open-air Mass for tens of thousands of Papua New Guinea’s faithful on Sunday, imploring this nation “at the edge of the world” to draw closer to the Catholic faith.
Later, the Pontiff flew deep into the jungle of the Southwestern Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea on Sunday to visit Catholics living in one of the most remote areas of the world and deliver medical supplies and other aid.
The 87-year-old Pontiff led an estimated 35,000 people in prayer from Port Moresby’s main stadium, the latest stop on this grueling 12-day trip across the Asia-Pacific.
He appeared before a startling mix of green-robed clergy, worshippers in starched Sunday whites, and tribesmen and women in feathered headdresses and reed skirts, who tapped out songs of worship on hourglass-shaped kundu drums.
His homily carried a familiar theme of his papacy—bringing those on the “periphery” closer to faith, and the vast Catholic Church he leads.
“Brothers and sisters, you who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” he said.
“Today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances.”
Some gathered from the early hours of Sunday to make sure they could take part in morning Mass.
Local beliefs
More than 90 percent of Papua New Guinea’s 12 million residents call themselves Christian, but the religion sits alongside a panoply of local beliefs, customs and rites.
The Vatican says there are around 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea.
Later on Sunday, the Pope traveled 1,000 kilometers in a C-130 cargo aircraft into the “periphery,” to the remote jungle town of Vanimo, in Papua New Guinea’s northwest.
Francis arrived with a small entourage in Vanimo, a township of some 12,000 people, with no running water and scarce electricity.
The Pope brought hundreds of kilograms of items to help support the local population, said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni. They included various medicines and clothing, as well as toys and musical instruments for school children, Bruni said.
The Pope is visiting the nation of 600 islands as part of his ambitious 12-day, four-country tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania, the longest of his 11-year-old papacy.
He came to Vanimo at the invitation of local missionaries with the Catholic Institute of the Incarnate Word. They, like Francis, the first pope from the Americas, are from Argentina.
“You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone,” Francis told the crowd, which the Vatican estimated at 20,000, of missionaries and Catholic faithful from Vanimo in a meeting outside the town’s one-story, wood-paneled cathedral parish.
A magnificent land
“You live in a magnificent land, enriched by a great variety of plants and birds,” said the Pope. “The beauty of the landscape is matched by the beauty of a community where people love one another.”
The Rev. Tomas Ravaioli, one of the missionaries, said he could not believe the Pope had actually come to Vanimo. “He is keeping his promise to come,” said the priest. “We cannot believe it. At his age he is making an enormous effort.”
The Pope also heard four testimonies from local Catholics.
Steven Abala, a lay teacher, described how some rural communities, cut off from roads, must wait weeks or months between visits by priests.
A sprawling country of mountains, jungle and rivers, PNG is home to more than 800 languages and hundreds of tribes, including dozens of uncontacted peoples.
As with other events throughout his stay in the country, Francis was greeted in a field outside the cathedral with a traditional dance from a group wearing feathered headdresses and straw skirts. Some of the men wore koteka, a traditional gourd covering over the penis.
