The Vatican announced on Friday (Apr. 12) that Pope Francis would take his very first overseas trip of the year, and it is expected to be historic as the four-nation tour would be the longest in his 11-year papacy.
According to state media Vatican News, the 87-year-old pontiff scheduled his visit to Jakarta, Port Moresby, Dili, and Singapore from Sept. 2 to 13, with the Holy See Press Office saying that a full program of his apostolic journey would be published at a later date.
The Asia-Pacific trip - the second one since his trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2015 - has been on the papal agenda for some time, but there had been doubts on whether Francis would embark on it given his increasing frailty and mobility issues, as well as a record of skipping major engagements due to health problems.
It could be recalled that his last international journey was a two-day stay in Marseille, France, in September.
The pope has been suffering on and off in recent months from what the Vatican has described as a cold, bronchitis, and influenza, and he needed a wheelchair or a cane to move around due to a knee ailment.
Other trips outside Rome include day trips to Venice (Apr. 28), Verona (May 18), and Trieste (Jul. 7), as well as a visit to Belgium, which was expected to happen in the second half of September.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and its 8 million Catholics represent a mere 3% of its total population. Singaporean Catholics, on the other hand, comprise about 7% of its residents aged 15 and above, according to a 2020 census.
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea has about 26% of its population are Catholics, according to a religious freedom report by the US State Department.
Timor-Leste is one of only two Asian nations with a predominantly Catholic population, with the Philippines being the other.
Vietnam, previously suggested by Vatican officials as a possible future destination, is missing from the tour.
The Argentine pope, the first from the so-called Global South, has made reaching out to Asia one of the priorities of his pontificate, during which the Vatican has struck a historic, yet contested and controversial, deal with China on bishop appointments, Reuters reported.
