By Joshua McElwee
VANIMO, Papua New Guinea (Reuters) – Pope Francis flew deep into the jungle of the Southwestern Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea on Sunday to go to Catholics residing in some of the distant areas of the world and ship medical provides and different support.
Travelling 1,000 km (620 miles) in a C-130 cargo plane supplied by the Royal Australian Air Pressure, Francis arrived with a small entourage in Vanimo, a township of some 12,000 folks within the northwestern nook of PNG’s most important island, with no operating water and scarce electrical energy.
The 87-year-old pope introduced lots of of kilograms of things to assist assist the native inhabitants, mentioned Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. They included numerous medicines and clothes, as properly mentioned toys and musical devices for college youngsters, Bruni mentioned.
The pope is visiting the nation of 600 islands as a part of his formidable 12-day, four-country tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania, the longest of his 11-year-old papacy.
He got here to Vanimo on the invitation of native missionaries with the Catholic Institute of the Incarnate Phrase. They, like Francis, the primary pope from the Americas, are from Argentina.
“You’re doing one thing lovely, and it’s important that you’re not left alone,” Francis informed the group, which the Vatican estimated at 20,000, of missionaries and Catholic devoted from Vanimo in a gathering outdoors the city’s one-storey, wood-panelled cathedral parish.
“You reside in a powerful land, enriched by a terrific number of crops and birds,” mentioned the pope. “The fantastic thing about the panorama is matched by the fantastic thing about a neighborhood the place folks love each other”.
The Rev. Tomas Ravaioli, one of many missionaries, mentioned he couldn’t imagine the pope had truly come to Vanimo. “He’s holding his promise to return,” mentioned the priest. “We can’t imagine it. At his age he’s making an infinite effort.”
A sprawling nation of mountains, jungle and rivers, PNG is dwelling to greater than 800 languages and lots of of tribes, together with dozens of uncontacted peoples.
As with different occasions all through his keep within the nation, Francis was greeted in a discipline outdoors the cathedral with a standard dance from a bunch sporting feathered headdresses and straw skirts. A number of the males wore koteka, a standard gourd masking over the penis.
The pope additionally heard 4 testimonies from native Catholics. Steven Abala, a lay instructor, described how some rural communities, reduce off from roads, should wait weeks or months between visits by clergymen.
Abala offered Francis with a headdress with yellow and brown feathers, which the pope tried on.
The Vatican says there are round 2.5 million Catholics in PNG, which has a inhabitants estimated at wherever from 9 million to 17 million.
The nation has turn into a significant goal of worldwide corporations for its fuel, gold and different reserves. In a speech to its political authorities on Saturday, Francis referred to as for higher therapy of its staff and appealed for an finish to a spate of ethnic violence that has killed dozens in latest months.
In Vanimo, the pope requested native Catholics to work “to place an finish to damaging behaviours resembling violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so lots of our brothers and sisters”.
Earlier than heading to Vanimo, Francis celebrated a Mass on Sunday with about 35,000 folks at a sports activities venue in Port Moresby, the nation’s capital. He informed the native populace that whereas they could suppose they stay in “a far-off and distant land”, God is close to to them.
The pope will return to Port Moresby on Sunday night after spending about two and a half hours in Vanimo. Spherical journey, the pontiff will fly some 2,000 km (1,200 miles) over about 4 hours.
Francis is visiting PNG till Monday as a part of a tour that first included a cease in Indonesia. He travels subsequent to East Timor, then Singapore earlier than heading again to Rome on Sept. 13.
