Pope Francis visits Papua New Guinea with humanitarian aid and a focus on serving marginalized groups

Pope Francis traveled to a remote town in the jungles of Papua New Guinea on Sunday, after first presiding over mass in the capital city before a crowd that welcomed him with cheers and lively musical performances including traditional dancing. 

The pope arrived in Vanimo, on the northwest coast of the South Pacific nation, on a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 transport plane from the capital city of Port Moresby, where he had earlier told church leaders to focus on the “peripheries of this country” and people in marginalized communities.

He has insisted the Catholic Church is committed to helping those who are wounded “morally and physically” due to “prejudice and superstition” during his visit to a country stricken by poverty. Human Rights Watch says the country is also one of the most dangerous places in the world for women or girls due to its high rates of sexual violence.

In Vanimo, where there is little electricity and no running water, Francis brought a ton of medicine, clothing and toys. He met with the local Catholic community and the missionaries from his native Argentina who have been ministering to them.

A crowd of an estimated 20,000 people gathered on the field in front of the Vanimo cathedral singing and dancing when Francis arrived, and he promptly put on a feathered headdress that had been presented to him.

In remarks from a raised stage, Francis praised the church workers who go out to try to spread the faith. But he urged the faithful to work closer to home at being good to one another and putting an end to the tribal rivalries and violence that are a regular part of the culture in Papua New Guinea.

He urged them to be like an orchestra so that all members of the community come together harmoniously to overcome rivalries.

Doing so, he said, would help to end personal, family and tribal divisions “to drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviors such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters, even in this country.”

It was a reference to the tribal violence over land and other disputes that have long characterized the country’s culture but have grown more lethal in recent years. Francis arrived in Papua New Guinea to urge an end to the violence, including gender-based violence, and for a sense of civic responsibility and cooperation to prevail.

Francis had started the day with a Mass before an estimated 35,000 people at the stadium in the capital, Port Moresby. Dancers in grass skirts and feathered headdresses performed to traditional drum beats as priests in green vestments processed up onto the altar.

In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may well feel themselves distant from both their faith and the institutional church, but that God was near to them.

“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,” Francis said. “Yet … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each one of you is important to him.”

Francis has long prioritized the church on the “peripheries,” saying it is actually more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring instead far-flung communities where Catholics are often a minority.

Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill of being remote. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, where the jungle meets the sea, the coastal city is perhaps best known as a surfing destination.

Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to serve as a missionary in Japan but was prevented from going because of his poor health.

Now as pope, he has often held up missionaries as models for the church, especially those who have sacrificed to bring the faith to far-away places.

The Rev. Martin Prado, an Argentine missionary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word religious order, is credited with having invited the pope to come to Vanimo.

As he waited for Francis to arrive Sunday, he recounted for reporters the “crazy” story of how he accompanied a group of Vanimo parishioners to Rome in 2019 and ended up scoring an audience with the pope after his parishioners insisted that they wanted to give him some gifts.

Prado, who has spent the last 10 of his 36 years working as a missionary in Vanimo, said he wrote a note, left it for the pope at the Vatican hotel where he lives, and the next day received an email from Francis’ secretary inviting his group in.

“I invited him, but he wanted to come,” Prado said. “He has a big heart for people. It’s not just words, he does what he says.”

Prado said some people deep in the interior of the diocese, in the jungle where cars have yet to arrive, need clothes and for them a plate of rice and tuna fish “is glorious.”

Prado said he was also helping to build a new secondary school. Prado said half of the children of the diocese are unable to go to high school since there simply aren’t enough spots for them.

The event had a very Argentine flair to it: On the stage was a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, the beloved patron of Argentina who is particularly dear to Francis and whose name also graces the local girls’ school. When Francis met privately after the event with the nuns and missionary priests, they served him mate, the Argentine tea.

There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth nation believed to be around 10 million. The Catholics practice the faith along with traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animism and sorcery.

On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families. In remarks to priests, bishops and nuns, Francis urged the church leaders in Papua New Guinea to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition.”

“I think too of the marginalized and wounded, both morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition sometimes to the point of having to risk their lives,” Francis said. He urged the church to be particularly close to such people on the peripheries, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”

Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor and then wraps up his visit in Singapore later in the week.