Pope Francis in Indonesia from September 3 to 6

The Card. Suharyo and the president of the Episcopal Conference confirm the rumors leaked in recent days. The mosaic of the long September trip between Asia and Oceania is being put together, which would also see the pontiff make stops in East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. For Indonesia it would be the third visit by a pontiff after Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989.

Jakarta () – The Archbishop of Jakarta, Card. Ignatius Suharyo, and the president of the Episcopal Conference (KWI), Bishop Antonius Subianto, bishop of Bandung, today officially confirmed Pope Francis' trip to Indonesia, scheduled for September 3-6. The announcement comes after news in this regard that has already been circulating in the country for weeks. “Pope Francis' visit had been publicly scheduled for 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic this trip was canceled and has now been rescheduled,” Card. Suharyo. As Monsignor Subianto explained, the dates of the trip were agreed upon in recent days between the Holy See and the Indonesian government. “We are still discussing with interested parties to define the program,” explained the president of the Episcopal Conference, “and at the same time we are constituting an internal committee for the organization,”

After the announcement made in January by the Government of Papua New Guinea, preparations are being made for the long trip that – health permitting – will take Francis to Asia and Oceania in September, also passing through East Timor and Singapore. In the background is also the invitation from Vietnam, where the visit of the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Monsignor Paul Gallagher, is expected starting tomorrow.

For Indonesia, what is scheduled for September will be the third visit by a pontiff. The first Pope to visit the archipelago was, in fact, Paul VI, who on December 3, 1970, on the last of his international apostolic trips, stopped in Jakarta, where he was warmly received by the then President Suharto. From October 8 to 12, 1989, the then Pope John Paul II traveled to Indonesia to celebrate an open-air mass at the Jakarta stadium and stopovers in Medan (North Sumatra), Yogyakarta (Central Java) and Flores (Nusa Tenggara). Oriental). On that same trip, Wojtyla also visited Dili, in the then Indonesian province of East Timor.

Indonesia has maintained good relations with the Vatican since its independence. “Already in 1947, the Holy See opened its diplomatic mission in Jakarta,” recalled Card. Suharyo remembered today. Between the 1950s and 1960s, the first President Sukarno made three official visits to the Vatican, meeting with Pius XII in 1956, John XXIII in 1959 and Paul VI in 1964. The current president Joko Widodo, however, has never been to the Vatican : The September trip (which would take place before the official inauguration of the new president) will therefore be his first opportunity for a personal meeting with Pope Francis.