What has the Pope said in the countries of Asia and Oceania that he has visited? There are those who look for "novelties" in the papal teachings, but what is important is what he says in the different contexts.
Following in the footsteps of the previous pontiffs, he has visited Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor y Singapore. Already in Rome, at the general audience of the following Wednesday (18-IX-2024), he thanked God for having granted him "....do as an old Pope what I would have wanted to do as a young Jesuit, because I wanted to go there as a missionary.".
Compared to the current situation in Europe, he noted, the Church is much more alive in those places, and he has seen this by listening to the testimonies of priests, nuns, lay people and above all "catechists, who are the ones who carry out evangelization".
Faith, fraternity, compassion
In Indonesia, Christians are few in number (10 %) and Catholics are a minority (3 %). In a place where Muslims are very numerous, the Pope admired the nobility and harmony in diversity, so that Christians can witness to their faith in dialogue with great religious and cultural traditions.
The motto of the visit to that country was ".faith, fraternity and compassionvalues that the Pope underlined for everyone, starting with Christians (cf. Speech at the Cathedral of Jakarta, "The Pope has stressed the importance of the following values, 4-XI-2024). In this framework, the Gospel enters every day in the concrete, in the life of every people, welcoming it and giving it the grace of the dead and risen Jesus.
Dialogue and collaboration among believers
Francis held an interreligious meeting in Jakarta at the Istiqlal Mosque (cf. Speech 5-IX-2024), designed by a Christian architect and linked to the Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption by the "subway tunnel of friendship". The Pope encouraged the faithful to continue with this communication in the life of the country: "I encourage you to continue along this path: that all of us, all together, each cultivating our own spirituality and practicing our own religion, may walk in search of God and contribute to building open societies, founded on mutual respect and mutual love, capable of isolating rigidities, fundamentalisms and extremisms, which are always dangerous and never justifiable".
In this perspective, he wanted to give them two orientations. First of all, always see in depth, because beyond the differences between religions, differences in doctrines, rites and practices, "...," he said.we could say that the common root of all religious sensibilities is one: the search for an encounter with the divine, the thirst for the infinite that the Most High has placed in our hearts, the search for a greater joy and a life stronger than death, which animates the journey of our lives and urges us to go out of ourselves to meet God.". And he insisted on the fundamental: "Looking in depth, perceiving what flows in the most intimate part of our lives, the desire for fullness that lives in the depths of our hearts, we discover that we are all brothers, all pilgrims, all on the way to God, beyond what differentiates us.".
In doing so, he alluded to one of the key issues of these days: the significance of religions, and the dialogue and collaboration between believers (cf. the analysis of Ismatu Ropi, an Indonesian Muslim academic, in Alpha and Omega12-IX-2024). A few days later he would tell the young people in Singapore: "all religions are a path to God". (Encounter, 13-IX-2024). This is so, and it is fulfilled in the religions themselves and to the extent that they respect human dignity and do not oppose the Christian faith. This is not said, therefore, in reference to the deformations of religion such as violence, terrorism, Satanism, etc.
On the other hand, neither did the Pope affirm that religions are equivalent to each other, or that they have the same value in the Christian perspective (cf. the Declaration on the Christian Faiths of the Church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth). Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent magisterium (cf. the Declaration Dominus Iesus, of 2000).
In fact, Catholic doctrine teaches that religions, along with elements of truth and goodness, have elements that need to be purified.
Secondly, Francis invited us to take care of the relationships between believers. Just as a subway passage connects, it creates a link, "what really brings us closer is creating a connection between our differences, taking care to cultivate bonds of friendship, attention, reciprocity.".
In fact, far from any relativism or syncretism, these links, as previous Popes have also insisted and practiced, "...are the result of the same bonds that have been established in the past.allow us to work together, to walk together in the pursuit of some goal, in the defense of human dignity, in the fight against poverty, in the promotion of peace. Unity is born of personal bonds of friendship, of mutual respect, of the mutual defense of the spaces and ideas of others.".
In other words, it is "promoting religious harmony for the good of humanity"The Joint Declaration prepared for this occasion is along these lines (cf. Istiqlal joint statement).
"In it we assume responsibility for the great and sometimes dramatic crises that threaten the future of humanity, particularly wars and conflicts, unfortunately also fueled by religious instrumentalizations; but also the environmental crisis, which has become an obstacle to the growth and coexistence of peoples. Against this backdrop, it is important that the values common to all religious traditions be promoted and strengthened, helping society to 'eradicate the culture of violence and indifference'.’".
A beacon of light and beauty
The Pope said in his audience on Wednesday, September 18 that in Papua New Guinea he found "the beauty of a missionary Church, going forth". This archipelago, where more than eight hundred languages are spoken, appeared to him as an ideal environment for the action of the Holy Spirit that "loves to make the message of Love resonate in the symphony of languages"..
The country has a great Christian majority and a quarter of them are Catholics. There he highlighted the evangelizing work of the missionaries and catechists; the atmosphere of understanding, without violence; the horizon of fraternity and human development as "leaven" of the Gospel. "Because"He said, evoking the magisterium of his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI, "....there is no new humanity without new men and new women, and this can only be done by the Lord.".
"To all who profess to be Christians." noted upon arrival in the country, "I strongly urge you not to reducefaith to an observance of rites and precepts, but that it consists in love, in loving and following Jesus Christ, and that it can become a lived culture, inspiring minds and actions, becoming a beacon of light that illuminates the path. In this way, faith will be able to help society as a whole to grow and find good and effective solutions to its great challenges."(Meeting with the authorities at the "APEL Haus", Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 7-IX-2024).
Inculturation of faith and education
Francis turned his attention to East Timor, the youngest country in Asia: about 65 % of the population is under 30 years of age, it has 98 % Catholics and, at the same time, it is a poor country in need of support, starting with literacy.
In his history, he noted at the general audience of the 18th, "highlights the strength of the human and social promotion of the Christian message."where the Church has collaborated with all the people in the process of independence, on the road to peace and reconciliation.
"It's not about"He pointed out, recalling the visit of John Paul II in 1989 to those lands, "....of an ideologization of faith, no, it is faith that becomes culture and at the same time illuminates, purifies and elevates it. (...) It is necessary to inculturate faith and evangelize cultures.". This is another key to the Pope's trip.
He encouraged them to continue on this path to overcome new challenges: emigration and unemployment, poverty, alcohol consumption among young people. He urged them to carefully train the future ruling class of the country, with the support of the Social Doctrine of the Church: "Invest in education, in education in the family and in education at school. An education that puts children and young people at the center and promotes their dignity. (...) The enthusiasm, freshness, projection towards the future, courage and ingenuity, typical of the young, together with the experience and wisdom of the elderly, form a providential mixture of knowledge and generous impulses for tomorrow."(Meeting with the authorities at the Presidential Palace in Dili, 9-IX-2024)
In his meeting with the Catholic hierarchy and pastoral collaborators (cf. Speech in the cathedral of Dili, 10-IX-2024) he invited them to care for and spread the perfume of the Christian message.. To this end, he proposed to combat mediocrity, spiritual lukewarmness and worldliness, and to promote evangelization with a spirit of service, taking care to provide adequate formation: "Do not stop deepening in the doctrine of the Gospel, do not stop maturing in spiritual, catechetical and theological formation, because all this is necessary to announce the Gospel in this culture of yours and, at the same time, to purify it of archaic and sometimes superstitious forms.".
"Let us remember that with the perfume we must anoint the feet of Christ, which are the feet of our brothers and sisters in faith, beginning with the poorest. The most privileged are the poorest. And with this perfume we must take care of them. The gesture that the faithful make when they meet you is eloquent here,priests: they take the consecrated hand, bring it close to their forehead as a sign of blessing.".
During the Mass in Dili, the capital of the country, in which half of the population (about 700,000 people) participated, he proposed to them to become small before God (cf. Homily, 10-IX-2024). bullying (Encounter, 11-IX-2024).
Nothing is built without love
The last stop of his trip was Singapore, a country very different from the previous ones, at the forefront of the economy and material progress. With few Christians but alive and committed to fraternal dialogue between ethnic groups, cultures and religions. Even in wealthy Singapore there are the "little ones" who follow the Gospel and become salt and light, witnesses of a greater hope than that which economic benefits can guarantee.
During the Mass he celebrated at the national stadium, the Singapore Sports Hub (cfr. Homily, 12-IX-2024) among the great skyscrapers stressed that nothing is built without love, although some might think that this is a naive statement.
Finally, in the meeting with young people (Catholic Junior College(13-IX-2024) asked them to cultivate a healthy and constructive critical spirit: "Young people must be courageous enough to build, to move forward and to get out of the 'comfort' zones. A young person who always chooses to spend his life in a 'comfortable' way, is a young person who gets fat. But he does not fatten his belly, he fattens his mind.". Then you have to take risks, to go out, not to be afraid to make mistakes. We must use the media in such a way that they help, not enslave.
