Pope arrives in Indonesia on first leg of Asia-Pacific tour to promote religious harmony

Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Pope Francis arrived in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Tuesday to embark on a historic 11-day visit to the Asia-Pacific region aimed at promoting understanding between Catholicism and Islam in the region.

In the first papal visit since Pope John Paul in 1989, Pope Francis will hold an interreligious meeting in Jakarta's Istiqlal Mosque and celebrate Mass for the country's 8 million-strong Catholic minority, the Vatican said in a news release .

Praising Indonesia as a country "built on respect for individuals and their differing religious beliefs," the Vatican said the 87-year-old pontiff was also scheduled to meet with President Joko Widodo on Wednesday and deliver a speech to political leaders at the Istana Merdeka Presidential Palace.

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of Jakarta pointed out that inter-religious marriages were common in Indonesia, including between Catholics and Muslims, something which was not typical in many Muslim-majority countries.

Catholic priests often came from families where at least one parent was Muslim or Buddhist, he said.

The pope will also meet with Catholic bishops , priests, seminarians, and catechists at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in the Archdiocese of Jakarta before traveling to the Papua New Guinea capital, Port Moresby, on Friday.

There the pope will meet with civil and religious leaders and visit communities involved with Catholic ministries promoting the spiritual and social welfare in the country where Catholics make up the largest religious denomination in the majority-Christian nation with about 4 million adherents.

On Sept. 9, he will fly 1,500 east to Catholic-majority East Timor to meet with Catholic leaders and the faithful at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Dili where he is also scheduled to meet with the country's leaders, deliver an address at the Presidential Palace and take an outdoor Mass for thousands of Catholics.

The final leg of his trip will take Francis to secular Singapore for a two-day visit Sept. 11 -13, his first to the religiously diverse Southeast Asia city-state, to meet civil and religious leaders and take Holy Mass at the 55,000-seat National Stadium.

In Singapore, Francis will focus on the sick and young people, visiting with residents of St. Theresa's Home, a nursing home founded by the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1935, and taking part in a youth-led interreligious meeting at Catholic Junior College.

Analysts said his choice to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore was in line with efforts in his 11 years as the leader of the Catholic world to push the church to bring "God's comfort" to remote or marginalized communities .

Francis has made a point of stepping up engagement with the Asia-Pacific, one of only a few places in the world where the church is thriving, as measured by numbers of baptized faithful and people pursuing religious vocations.

He previously visited South Korea in 2014 and Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2015. In 2019, he visited Thailand and Japan despite only about 0.5% of the populations of the two countries identifying as Catholics.