Pope Francis has travelled deep into the jungle of the southwest Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea to visit Catholics living in one of the most remote areas of the world and deliver medical supplies and other aid. / (min cost $ 0 ) or signup to continue reading Travelling 1000km in a C-130 cargo aircraft provided by the Royal Australian Air Force, Francis arrived with a small entourage in Vanimo, a township of some 12,000 people in the northwest corner of PNG's main island, with no running water and scarce electricity. The 87-year-old Pope brought hundreds of kilograms of items to help support the local population, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
They included various medicines and clothing, toys and musical instruments for school children, Bruni said. The Pope is visiting the nation of 600 islands as part of his ambitious 12-day, four-country tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania - the longest of his 11-year-old papacy. He came to Vanimo at the invitation of local missionaries with the Catholic Institute of the Incarnate Word.
They, like Francis, the first Pope from the Americas, are from Argentina. "You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone," Francis told the crowd - estimated at 20,000 by the Vatican - of missionaries and Catholic faithful from Vanimo in a meeting outside the town's one-storey, wood-panelled cathedral parish. "You live in a magnificent land, enriched by a great variety of plants and birds," he said.
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