Pope Francis held an open-air mass for tens of thousands of Papua New Guinea’s faithful on Sunday, imploring this nation “at the edge of the world” to embrace the Catholic faith.
The 87-year-old pontiff led an estimated 35,000 people in prayer from Port Moresby’s main stadium, the latest stop on this gruelling 12-day trip across the Asia-Pacific.
He appeared before a startling mix of green-robed clergy, worshippers in starched Sunday whites and tribesmen and women in feathered headdresses and reed skirts, who tapped out songs of worship on hour-glass shaped kundu drums.
His homily carried a familiar theme of his papacy — bringing those on the “periphery” closer to faith, and the vast Catholic Church he leads.
“Brothers and sisters, you who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” he said.
“Today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances”.
More than 90 percent of Papua New Guinea’s 12 million residents consider themselves Christian, but the religion sits alongside a panoply of local beliefs, customs and rites.
About a quarter of Papua New Guineans are Catholic.
Later on Sunday, the pope will travel even further into the “periphery”, to the remote jungle town of Vanimo, in Papua New Guinea’s northwest.
