Pope Francis to visit 4 Asian nations in September

By Devin Watkins

The Holy See Press Office announced Friday that Pope Francis will visit four Asian countries in early September.

He accepted the invitation from heads of state and local ecclesial authorities to make what will be his 43rd apostolic trip abroad.

The pope is expected to leave Rome on September 2 and return on September 13.

It will first travel to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where it will land on September 3 and stay there until September 6.

Pope Francis will then fly east to visit Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, and Vanimo from September 6-9.

Its next stop will take place in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, from September 9 to 11.

From there, the pope will travel to Singapore for a three-day visit, September 11-13.

According to the Holy See Press Room, the full program of his apostolic journey will be published later.

Local Catholic population

Pope Francis first raised the possibility of visiting the region in December 2023.

In an interview with Mexican television station N+, he said he hoped to visit “Polynesia” in August and his native Argentina later in the year.

Then, in January 2024, the pope told an Italian newspaper interviewer: La Stampa that he would travel to Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, and Catholics number more than 8 million, or 3.1 percent of the population.

About 32 percent of Papua New Guinea's population is Catholic, or about 2 million people.

Timor-Leste is predominantly Catholic, making up about 96 percent of the population, or more than a million people.

Some 395,000 Catholics live in Singapore, representing about 3 percent of the population.