APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO INDONESIA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, TIMOR-LESTE AND SINGAPORE

Mr President, Distinguished Authorities, Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Esteemed Representatives of religious communities and of various religions, Esteemed Representatives of Civil Society, Members of the Diplomatic Corps!
I cordially thank you, Mr President, for the gracious invitation to visit your country and for your kind words of welcome. I extend to the President-elect my warmest good wishes for a fruitful period of service to Indonesia, a vast archipelago of thousands and thousands ...

The Holy Father takes the floor after listening to some testimonies, and he asks the catechist who has just concluded to stay by his side for a moment.
With you standing here in front of everyone, I would like to say something.
The catechists carry the Church forward. They are the ones who move forward first, followed by the nuns, then the priests and the bishop. But, the catechists are at the front, they are the driving force of the Church.
On one of my trips to Africa, the President of a ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am happy to be here, in the largest Mosque in Asia, together with all of you. I greet the Grand Imam and thank him for his words, reminding us that this place of worship and prayer is also “a great house for humanity”, where everyone can enter and take time for themselves, in order to make space for that yearning for the infinite that each one of us carries in our hearts, and to seek an encounter with the divine and experience the joy of friendship ...

The encounter with Jesus calls us to live out two fundamental attitudes that enable us to become his disciples. The first attitude is listening to the word, and the second is living the word. First, listening, because everything comes from listening, from opening ourselves to him, welcoming the precious gift of his friendship. Then it is important to live the word we have received, so as not to listen in vain and deceive ourselves (cf. Jas 1:22). Indeed, those who risk listening only with their ...

Your Excellency, Mr Governor General, Mr Prime Minister, Distinguished Representatives of Civil Society, Esteemed Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I am pleased to be with you today and to visit Papua New Guinea. I thank the Governor General for his cordial words of welcome and I thank all of you for your warm reception. I extend my greetings to the people of the country, wishing them peace and prosperity. And I also express my gratitude to the Authorities for helping the Church, in a spirit ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good evening!
I greet you all with affection: Bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, seminarians and catechists. I thank the President of the Bishops’ Conference for his words, as well as James, Grace, Sister Lorena and Father Emmanuel for their testimonies.
I am pleased to be here, in this beautiful Salesian church: the Salesians know how to do things well. I congratulate you! This is a diocesan shrine dedicated to Mary Help of Christians – I was baptized in ...

The first words the Lord addresses to us today are, “Be strong, do not fear!” (Is 35:4). In this way, the prophet Isaiah addresses all those who have lost heart. He likewise encourages his people and, even amid difficulties and suffering, invites them to raise their eyes to a horizon of hope and to a future where God is coming to save us. For the Lord will indeed come, and on that day, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Is 35:5).
This prophecy is ...

Dear brothers and sisters,
Before concluding this celebration, let us turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Angelus prayer. I entrust to her the journey of the Church in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. May Mary Help of Christians, Maria Helpim, accompany you and protect you always. May she strengthen the unity of families, make young people’s dreams beautiful and courageous, support and console the elderly, comfort the sick and the suffering!
From this land so blessed by the Creator, ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good afternoon!
I thank the Bishop for his words. I greet the Authorities, priests, consecrated men and women, missionaries, catechists, young people, the faithful – some of whom have travelled here from very far away – and you, dear children! Thank you Maria Joseph, Steven, Sister Jaisha Joseph, David and Maria for what you have shared. I am happy to meet you in this wonderful, young and missionary land!
As we heard, since the middle of the nineteenth century, the ...

Dear young people, good morning!
I am happy to have spent these past few days in your country, where the sea, mountains and tropical forests coexist. It is, above all, a young country inhabited by many young people! We have all been able to contemplate the young face of the country, in particular through the beautiful performance that we just watched. Thank you! Thank you for your joy and for recounting the beauty of Papua “where the ocean meets the sky, where dreams are born and challenges ...

Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, Distinguished members of the Government and Diplomatic Corps, Your Eminence, dear brother Bishops, Representatives of Civil Society, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I thank you for the kind and joyful welcome to this beautiful country of Timor-Leste. I am grateful to the President, Mr José Ramos-Horta, for his kind words of welcome.
In this place Asia and Oceania touch each other. In a certain sense, they also encounter Europe, which, though geographically ...

Dear brother Bishops, Dear priests, deacons, consecrated persons and seminarians, Dear catechists, brothers and sisters, good morning!
Many of the youngest – seminarians, young religious – remained outside. And now, when I saw the bishop, I told him that he has to enlarge the cathedral because it is a grace to have so many vocations! Let us thank the Lord and let us also thank the missionaries who came before us. When we saw this man [Florentino de Jesús Martins, 89 years old, to whom ...

“A child has been born for us, a son given to us” (Is 9:6).
With these words, in the first reading, the prophet Isaiah addresses the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It was a prosperous time for that city, but sadly also characterized by great moral decadence.
We see much wealth there, but this affluence blinds the powerful, seducing them into thinking that they are self-sufficient, with no need for the Lord, and their conceit leads them to be selfish and unjust. For this reason, despite so much ...

Dadeer di’ak! (Good morning!)
First of all, I will ask all of you a question, and we will see who can answer it: What do young people do? You [pointing to a young woman].
[the young woman]. “Proclaim Christ!” Very good.
What else do young people do?
[another young person] “Proclaim the Word of God”. Very good.
What other things do young people do?
[another young person responds] “Love one another”.
Young people have a great capacity to love. What other things do young people do?
[another ...

Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, Distinguished Authorities, Esteemed Representatives of Civil Society, Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
I thank the President for his kind words of welcome, and I renew my appreciation for his recent visit to the Vatican. Furthermore, I am grateful to all the Authorities for the cordial welcome to this City-State, a commercial crossroads of primary importance and a place where different peoples meet.
Those arriving here for the first time cannot fail to be ...

“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1). Saint Paul addresses these words to the brothers and sisters of the Christian community at Corinth. In his letters to this community, which was rich in many charisms (cf. 1 Cor 1:4-5), the Apostle often recommends that it cultivate communion in charity.
Let us listen to those words of Paul as together we thank the Lord for the Church in Singapore, which is also rich in gifts, a Church that is vibrant, growing and engaged in constructive ...

Thank you very much for your words!
Three things that you said struck me: “armchair critics,” “comfort zone,” and “technology” – the duty to use it but also the risks involved. This is the speech that I had prepared, but now I will speak [spontaneously]!
Young people are courageous and like to seek the truth but they have to be careful not to become what you referred to as “armchair critics” with endless words. A young person must be a critical thinker, and it is not good never to be critical. ...