On Sunday, Pope Francis conducted an open-air mass for tens of thousands of Papua New Guinea’s faithful, urging this nation “at the edge of the world” to adopt the Catholic faith.
The most recent stop on this arduous 12-day journey across the Asia-Pacific was Port Moresby’s main stadium, where the 87-year-old pontiff led an estimated 35,000 individuals in prayer.
He appeared before a bewildering amalgamation of clergy in green robes, worshippers in starched Sunday whites, and tribesmen and women in feathered headdresses and reed skirts. They played hourglass-shaped kundu drums to accompany their worship hymns.
The theme of his homily was a recurring motif of his papacy: the reconciliation of those on the “periphery” with faith and the vast Catholic Church he oversees.
“Brothers and sisters, you who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” he indicated.
“Today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances” .
Despite the fact that over 90% of the 12 million residents of Papua New Guinea identify as Christian, the religion is interspersed with a variety of indigenous customs, beliefs, and rites.
Approximately 25% of the population of Papua New Guinea is Catholic.
On Sunday, the pope will extend his journey to the “periphery” by visiting the isolated jungle hamlet of Vanimo in the northwest of Papua New Guinea.
