Pope's PNG visit scheduled for September

8:49 am on 17 April 2024
Pope Francis arrives by popemobile for the holy mass at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, on February 5, 2023. - Pope Francis wraps up his pilgrimage to South Sudan with an open-air mass on February 5, 2023 after urging its leaders to focus on bringing peace to the fragile country torn apart by violence and poverty. The three-day trip is the first papal visit to the largely Christian country since it achieved independence from Sudan in 2011 and plunged into a civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people.

Pope Francis arrives by popemobile for the holy mass at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba, South Sudan, on 5 February. Photo: AFP

The Vatican's media team says Pope Francis will visit Papua New Guinea from 6-9 September.

The Holy See Press Office said the Pope will travel first to Jakarta before flying to Port Moresby and Vanimo.

"He accepted the invitation of the Heads of State and local church authorities to make what will be his 45th Apostolic Journey abroad," Vatican News reported.

The Office said the full programme will be published at a later date.

It said around 32 percent of Papua New Guinea's population are Catholic, numbering around two million.

The Pope will then go on to Timor Leste and Singapore before returning to Rome.

Vatican News said Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority country, and Catholics number over eight million, or 3.1 percent of the population.

In Timor-Leste, Catholics account for around 96 percent of the population, while some 395,000 Catholics live in Singapore, representing around 3 percent of the population.

Meanwhile, the PNG Post-Courier newspaper reported three regional leaders are arriving in PNG in the next few weeks.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi touches down on an official visit on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said Wang's visit is to sign various memorandums of understanding (MOUs) that are being finalised over two days.

"We are talking about different MOUs which will be announced shortly, and they are just being cleared by the State Solicitor," Tkatchenko said.

"But they will be on economic growth and how we handle the agriculture sector. Nothing at all on security."

Wang Yi's visit will be followed by that of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is going to hike the Kokoda Track and also attend the ANZAC day ceremony in Isurava; and then the New Zealand deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters a few weeks later.

"[Peters] will be here to strengthen the continuous relationship they have with us," Tkatchenko said.

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs