VANIMO, Papua New Guinea: Pope Francis flew deep into the jungle of the Southwestern Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea on Sunday (Sep 8) to visit Catholics living in one of the most
Pope Francis meets with the faithful of the diocese of Vanimo at the esplanade in front of the Holy Cross Cathedral in Vanimo, Papua New Guinea , Sep 8, 2024. on Sunday to visit Catholics living in one of the most remote areas of the world and deliver medical supplies and other aid.
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. "You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone," Francis told the crowd, which the Vatican estimated at 20,000, of missionaries and Catholic faithful from Vanimo in a meeting outside the town's one-storey, wood-panelled cathedral parish.
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. The Vatican says there are around 2.5 million Catholics in PNG, which has a population estimated at anywhere from 9 million to 17 million.
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