Pope’s voyage between third and first worlds is a microcosm of his papacy and 11-year message
SINGAPORE – Pope Francis travelled from one of the world’s poorest nations to one of its richest on 11 September, leaving behind the dusty but vibrant and enthusiastic crowds of East Timor, and arriving in the ultra-modern and affluent city-state of Singapore. Francis’s trip to Asia and Oceania – the longest and farthest, and by The post Pope’s voyage between third and first worlds is a microcosm of his papacy and 11-year message appeared first on Catholic Herald.
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SINGAPORE – Pope Francis travelled from one of the world’s poorest nations to one of its richest on 11 September, leaving behind the dusty but vibrant and enthusiastic crowds of East Timor, and arriving in the ultra-modern and affluent city-state of Singapore.
Francis’s trip to Asia and Oceania – the longest and farthest, and by far the most arduous, of his 11-year papacy – has in many ways been a contrast in global realities, an example of the sharp disparity between the developed and developing nations.
The trip, in essence, has been a microcosm of Francis’s entire papacy and the spirit of poverty, unity, dialogue and fraternity that he has sought to grow in the Church – and in the world.
As he himself has described it, the trip has largely been a voyage “to the peripheries”, with the pontiff visiting the beautiful but impoverished and crime-ridden Papua New Guinea, and the tiny and pauperised nation of East Timor.
What East Timor – a country of just 1.3 million – lacks in size, though, it made up for in enthusiasm, with some 98 per cent of the population identifying as Catholic. It is one of just two predominantly Catholic countries in Asia.
The excitement over the Pope’s visit among locals was felt long before he arrived. It was the first papal visit to East Timor in 35 years, with Francis following in the footsteps of St Pope John Paul II who travelled there in 1989, prior to its independence in 2002.
From the moment he arrived until his departure, Francis was greeted by massive crowds that lined either side of the street wherever he and his entourage drove, as they waved, cheered and held up signs asking for blessings or telling the Pope that they loved him.
Nearly every street post had a banner advertising the papal visit, and nearly every building displayed an image of the Pope and the official logo of the trip.
The streets were lined with yellow and white umbrellas – the colours of the Vatican – that had been handed out ahead of the Pope’s arrival, as people who had been waiting for hours shielded themselves from the sun.
Many wept as the Pope passed by, and at his official welcoming ceremony, the mother of one of the members of the president’s staff held a large crucifix and Vatican flag, shouting, “Pope, bless me, bless me!” as he drove by.
The environment on the ground was vibrant and relaxed, with the country’s Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmão, greeting journalists in the papal entourage himself and helping them off busses when they arrived for the Pope’s official welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace.
He also made surprise appearance at the airport ahead of the Pope’s departure, appearing at the security line where journalists in the Vatican entourage were checking their bags through security.
One of the volunteers told journalists how the government of East Timor, where some 42 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, had gone to great efforts to clean up the capital city before the Pope’s arrival.
Some people, she said, were upset with how much money the government spent on preparations for the papal trip, whereas others were willing to spend whatever it took to give the Pope a proper welcome.
Perhaps the most glaring example of the strength of the faith pulsating in East Timor, where more than 60 per cent of the population is under 30, was Pope Francis’s final Mass, celebrated in a large, arid area where Indonesian military once buried Timorese independence fighters.
Some 600,000 people – nearly half of the country’s population – showed up for the Mass, some spending the night and waiting all day in the hot sun, shaded by those “papal” umbrellas, marking one of the largest turnouts ever for a papal event in terms of the proportion of a country’s population.
RELATED: Not a bad turnout: Pope’s Mass attended by 600,000 – nearly half of East Timor’s population
Pope Francis throughout the visit was energetic and delivered a completely off-the-cuff speech to a group of youth before leaving. He also delivered to the clergy of the country, and where priests are treated like royalty, a warning about clericalism and told locals not to be discouraged in the face of hardship or difficulties.
For the East Timorese, where unemployment and malnutrition are often crippling concerns for citizens, what they lacked in material wealth, they made up for in faith.
By contrast, when the pope landed in Singapore, flying on East Timor’s only aircraft, an Airbus A320, he set foot in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, where the streets are clean and orderly, no homeless are in sight, and shopping malls adorn nearly every city block in sight.
Since its independence from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore, one of Asia’s financial powerhouses, has transformed from a colonial port with few natural resources into an economic world player, and is broadly seen as one of the world’s most impressive “Cinderella stories” of rags to riches.
Known for its vast cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, Singapore is a champion of the “unity in diversity” the Pope is so often advocating, and, given its location and the good international relations it maintains, it is also a hub of multilateralism in Asia and a key player in negotiating global affairs.
So far, the Pope, who was greeted by a small ceremony at the airport and who held a formal meeting with national authorities on 12 September, before celebrating Mass for some 50,000 of the country’s Catholics, has urged Singapore to use its multilateral relations to help facilitate peace in the world. He has also urged it to help tackle climate change, which the Pope has often said affects the poorest and weakest members of society.
Catholics at the Pope’s Mass in Singapore were enthusiastic and filled the SportsHub Stadium – where Taylor Swift performed in March – with songs, hymns and prayers ahead of the Pope’s arrival.
In Singapore, it is not a message of encouragement for the poor and marginalised that the Pope came to deliver, but a call for the wealthy not to discard the poor, and to not let the weak and vulnerable get lost in the pursuit of economic and technological progress.
His trip to Asia and Oceania, then, is in many ways his attempt to bridge the “gap” that he says exists between the world’s peripheries and the world’s powerhouses – shedding light on the world’s margins, while urging those who hold the wealth and power not to forget those less fortunate when it comes to policy, trade, sustainability and the search for peace.
Photo: Pope Francis leads a holy Mass at the National Stadium in Singapore, Singapore Island, 12 September 2024. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images.)
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