Faithful take to boats, planes to arrive at Pope’s Mass

Pope Francis urged the people of Papua New Guinea to make openness to God, to others, and to the Gospel the “compass of [their] lives,” during a Mass at Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby on September 8, 2024. Some 35,000 people from all over the islands took part in the celebration, which was one of the highlights of the Pope's visit as part of his tour of Asia and Oceania.

On the third day of his visit to Papua New Guinea - after Indonesia - Pope Francis made his way to the capital's stadium, a large complex renovated for the 2015 Pacific Games. In bright sunshine, Catholics representing all the country's regions and islands awaited him in an impressive silence of recollection for this Mass, which was then colored by traditional costumes and local polyphonic chants.

Papua New Guinea is about one-quarter Catholic, and almost 65% Protestant.

Many of the faithful had crossed the country by boat, jungle trail, or plane, sometimes for several days. Over the last few days, they had been accommodated and fed by the various parishes of Port Moresby, before arriving at dawn to take their places in the stadium.

In his homily, the Pope assured the Papua New Guineans that, despite the geographical remoteness of their land “on the edge of the world,” they are “at the center [of] the heart” of God.

“Each and every one of you is important to Him,” he told the 1.5 million Catholics living on the numerous islands, which stretch over some 175,000 square miles.

Jesus “helps us to overcome our fears,” the Argentine pontiff assured, citing the day's Gospel to address believers who are “cut off from communion and friendship with God,” and who experience “an interior deafness and a dumbness of heart.”

The Pope went on to list the attitudes that lead away from God: “selfishness, indifference, fear of taking risks and getting involved, resentment, hatred … we end up revolving solely around our ego.”

Against these fears, the Pope presented openness to others and to God as the “compass of our lives.”

For, he insisted, “in this way we will be able to communicate with one another and build a different society, including here in Papua New Guinea.”

“Let none of us remain deaf and dumb in the face of this invitation,” he urged. The Gospel of the day recounts Jesus taking aside a man who is deaf, and healing him: "He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, 'Ephphatha!'— that is, 'Be opened!'"

After Mass, Francis led the midday Angelus, praying for peace in “this great region of the world situated between Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific Ocean.”

“Peace, peace for nations and also for creation. No to the rearmament and exploitation of our common home!"

A country rich in biodiversity - home to the world's third largest rainforest - Papua New Guinea is also one of the hardest hit by the ecological crisis, often falling prey to extreme climatic phenomena.

After Mass, Pope Francis met briefly in private with Prime Minister John Marape.