SENT TO JAKARTA. The Pope arrives in Jakarta, the first stop on his visits to Asia and Oceania: he will then go to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. In total, twelve days. The plane carrying Francis, 87 years old, landed at the international airport of the Indonesian capital. After the welcoming ceremony, in the presence of the Minister for Religious Affairs, the Pontiff moves to the apostolic nunciature. There the first meeting takes place: with a group of poor, homeless, orphaned children and refugees. A few hours earlier, on the flight from Rome he said: «Migrants are in my heart».
Upon his arrival at the nunciature, the Bishop of Rome speaks with this group of needy people. In particular, they are refugees welcomed by the Jesuit Refugee Service, orphaned children raised by Dominican nuns, and elderly, refugees and homeless people accompanied by the Indonesian Community of Sant’Egidio.
The Pope, on his first day in Indonesia, while a blanket of extremely humid heat covers Jakarta, has no other commitments planned, also to make up for the length of the trip from Rome (over 13 hours of flight) and the five-hour time difference. Tomorrow he will get to the heart of the agenda of appointments: with the President of the Republic Joko Widodo, the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps; a private dialogue with members of the Society of Jesus; and then bishops, clergy and religious, and the young people of Scholas Occurrentes.
There is great anticipation for the interreligious meeting on September 5 in the “Istiqlal Mosque”: the Bishop of Rome together with the Grand Imam will travel through the “Tunnel of Friendship”. Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of Vatican Media, writes: “There are tunnels of war and terror, those that serve to hide soldiers, militiamen and hostages. And there are tunnels created to unite people of different faiths in friendship. In Jakarta, the Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, and the Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, stand opposite each other, close but separated by a three-lane road. An old underpass has been restored, embellished with works of art and transformed into the “tunnel of brotherhood” to connect the place of prayer of Muslims with the one where Christians celebrate the Eucharist”. In a world “in flames where wars are fought that are reported by the media and those forgotten, where violence and hatred seem to prevail, we need to find paths of friendship, to bet on dialogue and peace because we are “all brothers”. This is what the Successor of Peter, builder of bridges, testifies to us”.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, during the flight to Indonesia, receiving a gift from a journalist accompanying him, a torch used by migrants to signal themselves at sea in the event of a shipwreck, said: “Migrants are in my heart”. The journalist had just returned from a two-week reportage on the Sos Mediterranee ship Ocean Viking, and the torch – which he gave to Francis with the ship’s T-shirt – had been given to him by a migrant to take to the Pope. The Pontiff, moved, thanked him very much and commented: “Thank you for what you do to tell the stories of migrants. They are in my heart”. Among other things, yesterday afternoon, shortly after 4:00 p.m., about fifteen homeless men and women, accompanied by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, almoner of His Holiness, were welcomed by the Pontiff at Casa Santa Marta before his departure.
Francis was given as a gift by journalists, among other things, the T-shirt of an 11-year-old boy recently killed in Spain, near Toledo, and whose murder was initially accused of an immigrant, with all the controversy that this entailed, who was later cleared. The Bishop of Rome was also entrusted with a letter from the victim’s family. Also – from the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua – the glove of a volunteer who collects plastic dispersed in the sea.
“I thank you for your presence on this journey and your company,” Francis told the approximately 80 journalists in his wake. “We will see each other on this journey, on this very long flight, I think the longest I have ever taken.”
The Pope sent a telegram of condolences to the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin for the death of his mother, who was 96 years old: “Informed of the passing of your dear mother, Mrs. Ada, I share spiritually in the mourning that has struck your family, assuring you of my closeness in this particular moment of human suffering.” The cardinal is in Schiavon (Vicenza) this morning to celebrate his mother’s funeral.
At the moment “in which I am preparing to make the apostolic journey to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, moved by the desire to meet brothers in faith and all those who, in those nations rich in human and spiritual values, have been witnesses of communion, solidarity and dialogue even in times and situations marked by trial, I am pleased to address to you, Mr. President, and to the dear Italian people the expression of my good wishes, which I accompany with cordial wishes for peace and prosperity”. This is the greeting telegram sent by Pope Francis to President Sergio Mattarella.
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