By Joshua McElwee
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT (Reuters) – Pope Francis left Indonesia on Friday morning for Papua New Guinea, the place the 87-year-old chief of the worldwide Catholic Church will proceed an bold 12-day tour throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania.
The Garuda Indonesia aircraft carrying the pope and his entourage left Jakarta’s airport for the flight to Port Moresby, the Papua New Guinean capital, the place he’ll keep for the subsequent three nights.
Whereas in PNG Francis will make a day journey to the northwestern city of Vanimo, earlier than departing the nation on Monday. He’s then scheduled to go to East Timor and Singapore earlier than returning to Rome on Sept. 13.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, Francis urged political leaders to protect in opposition to spiritual extremism.
The pope additionally visited Istiqlal Mosque, Southeast Asia’s largest, and signed a joint declaration with the nationwide grand imam. The assertion known as for “decisive action” by Catholics and Muslims to induce international leaders to confront the risks of local weather change.
The warming planet is predicted to stay a spotlight for the pope’s go to in Papua New Guinea, the place political leaders have blamed local weather change for a spate of pure disasters, together with a landslide in March that killed at the least 2,000 folks.
The pope has burdened the significance of environmental points all through his 11-year papacy.
Francis will participate in a quick ceremony on arrival in Port Moresby late Friday afternoon, after which head to the Vatican embassy for the night. His first public occasion within the nation shall be an deal with to political leaders on Saturday morning.
With Friday’s flight, the pope could have travelled about 16,000 km (about 10,000 miles) on the abroad journey, his longest but. By the point he returns to Rome, he could have clocked almost 33,000 km (20,500 miles).
