Pope Francis visited Vanimo, a remote town on Papua New Guinea’s northwest coast, after celebrating Mass before an estimated 35,000 people in the capital, Port Moresby.
The pope received a warm welcome in the town, on the peninsula near the border with Indonesia, where he was greeted by members of the small Catholic community served by missionaries from his native Argentina.
When the Pope arrived in the remote area, he brought about one tonne of humanitarian supplies and toys to deliver to believers and missionaries living there.
“You are doing a wonderful thing, and it is important that you are not left alone,” Pope Francis told a crowd the Vatican estimated at 20,000 at a rally outside the town’s one-story, wood-paneled cathedral parish.
“You live in a wonderful land, rich in a great variety of plants and birds,” the Pope said. “The beauty of the landscape is matched by the beauty of a community, where people love one another.”
The Pope’s visit to Vanimo will be the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of a four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. He will first stop in Indonesia before traveling to Timor-Leste on Monday and finishing up in Singapore later in the week.
In Vanimo, shops were closed, roads were blocked and the town was brought to a standstill to accommodate the pope’s three-hour visit. Father Augustin Prado told the Guardian that he and his brother had invited the pope to Vanimo when they made a pilgrimage to Rome in 2019.
“My brother, Father Martin, invited him,” Prado said, adding that the two had been “friends since 2019.”
Brother Prado and his sister, Sister Cielos, are part of a small group of Argentine missionaries and nuns who manage the Barro parish, a school facility and a home for girls victims of violence that the Pope has supported for many years.
Baro is a small village near Vanimo, close to the border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
Locals lined the main road to Baro, decorated with flowers and flags, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pope.
Authorities gave special permission to some people traveling from neighboring Indonesia to meet the pope in Baro. Pelagus Laguan and a group of believers from the Jayawijaya Wamena Catholic Diocese were the first to arrive across the border. Laguan said it cost about $500 to travel over the land border to meet the pope.
“The Vatican is far away so it is an honour to have the Pope come to Papua New Guinea,” he said.
“We may not be from the same country, but we live on the same soil, so we are honoured to have the Pope visit our soil and bring his blessing,” he said, adding that for many it was the first time they had crossed the border into Papua New Guinea.
Speaking at Mass in Port Moresby earlier in the day, the Pope told the crowd he wanted to prioritize the Church “on the periphery”, adding that people may feel far from the faith and from ecclesial institutions but that God was close to them.
“My brothers and sisters, living on this great island in the Pacific Ocean, you may sometimes think of yourselves as a faraway place, at the edge of the world,” he said.
“Today the Lord wants to draw near to you and remove distance.”
Some had gathered early on Sunday to take part in morning Mass. More than 90 percent of Papua New Guinea’s 12 million people identify as Christian, but the religion exists alongside many local beliefs, customs and rituals. About a quarter of Papua New Guineans are Catholic.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.