Vatican City, 29 August 2024 (TDI): Pope Francis leaves on Monday for a visit to four island countries across Southeast Asia, an ambitious tour to urge global action on climate change that may test the strength of the 87-year-old head of the global Catholic Church.
Over twelve days from September 2 to 13, Pope Francis will travel about 33,000 km (20,500 miles) to visit Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore.
It is the longest visit yet by the pope, who now regularly uses a wheelchair due to back and knee and pain.
Francis pushed hard for the 2015 Paris climate deal and aides say he wants to continue his appeals to confront the dangers of a rapidly warming world, and particularly to support the most vulnerable.
In the countries on his visit, these dangers include rising sea levels and increasingly severe and unpredictable heat waves and typhoons. Jakarta, the Indonesian capital where the visit begins, has experienced disastrous flooding in recent years and is slowly sinking, prompting the government to build a new 32-billion dollars capital on Borneo.
Francis is scheduled to headline more than forty events during the voyage and some analysts say that, beyond his specific itinerary, he wants to show he is still capable of leading the 1.4-billion-member Church, despite his age and bouts of ill health.
It is a show of strength for the pontiff, said Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic who has followed the papacy closely.
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Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia, said that no pope had toured abroad at such an age. Benedict XVI, Francis’ immediate predecessor, quit the office at 85. John Paul II, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, made his last trip abroad at 84.
The tour will be Francis’ 45th foreign visit since his election in March 2013.
