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.
"The beauty of the landscape is matched by the beauty of a community where people love one another." The Rev Tomas Ravaioli, one of the missionaries, said he could not believe the Pope had come to Vanimo. "He is keeping his promise," Ravaioli said.
A sprawling country of mountains, jungle and rivers, PNG is home to more than 800 languages and hundreds of tribes, including dozens of uncontacted peoples. As with other events throughout his stay in the country, Francis was greeted in a field outside the cathedral with a traditional dance by a group wearing feathered headdresses and straw skirts. The Pope also heard four testimonies from local Catholics.
Steven Abala, a lay teacher, described how some rural communities, cut off from roads, must wait weeks or months between visits by priests. Abala presented Francis with a headdress with yellow and brown feathers, which the Pope tried on. The Vatican says there are about 2.
5 million Catholics in PNG, which has a population estimated at anywhere from nine million to 17 million. The country has become a major target of international companies for its gas, gold and other reserves. In a speech to its political authorities on Saturday, Francis called for better treatment of its workers and appealed for an end to a spate of ethnic violence that has killed dozens in recent months.
In Vanimo, the Pope asked local Catholics to work "to put an end to destructive behaviours such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse - evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters". Before heading to Vanimo, Francis celebrated a Mass on Sunday with about 35,000 people at a sports venue in Port Moresby, the nation's capital. He told the local populace that while they might think they live in "a far away and distant land", God is near.
The Pope, who will return to Port Moresby on Sunday evening, is visiting PNG until Monday as part of a tour that first included a stop in Indonesia. He travels to East Timor on Monday, then on to Singapore before heading back to Rome on Friday. Advertisement Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.
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