Pope Francis is the second pope to visit Papua New Guinea, on the second leg of his four-nation trip to Southeast Asia and Oceania.
The pope celebrated the Catholic Church on the peripheries on Sunday by traveling to the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, bringing with him a ton of medicine and toys.
On board a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 transport plane from Port Moresby to Vanimo, Francis met with the local Catholic community and missionaries from his native Argentina.
About 20,000 people gathered on the grounds in front of Vanimo Cathedral, singing and dancing as Francis arrived, donning a feather headdress given to him.
Francis praised Church workers who go out to try to spread the faith, but he also urged the faithful to work closer to home to be kind to one another and end the tribal rivalries and violence that are part of the culture in Papua New Guinea.
He called for an end to personal, family and tribal divisions that encourage “destructive behaviors such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcoholism and drug addiction, evils that imprison and rob so many of our brothers and sisters of happiness, even in this country“.
Francis was referring to ethnic violence linked to land conflicts, which has become increasingly deadly in recent years.
In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may feel estranged from their faith and the institutional Church, but that God is close to them.
““You who live on this great island in the Pacific Ocean, you have perhaps sometimes considered yourselves a distant and remote land, located at the edge of the world,” Francis said. Yet today the Lord wants to come close to you, to abolish distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each one of you is important to him.”
After the Mass, Francis boarded the C-130 with just a few aides and his bodyguards. On board was the golf cart he used in Vanimo, as well as a ton of humanitarian aid, including medicine, clothing and toys for children, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Francis has long prioritized the “peripheral” church, arguing that it is actually more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely avoided foreign trips to European capitals, preferring to visit remote communities where Catholics are often a minority.
Vanimo, a coastal town of 11,000 people, is best known as a surfing destination. According to Vatican statistics, Papua New Guinea has about 2.5 million Catholics out of a population of about 10 million.
On Saturday, Francis urged Church leaders in Papua New Guinea to pay special attention to people on the margins of society who have been hurt by “prejudice and superstition,” after hearing stories of how women are wrongly accused of witchcraft and then rejected by their families.
Francis’ visit to Vanimo was part of the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. He will travel to East Timor on Monday before ending his trip in Singapore later in the week.
