Pope Francis enters Papua New Guinea's remote jungles with humanitarian aid and toys

VANIMO, Papua New Guinea — Pope Francis traveled to the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea on Sunday to celebrate the Catholic Church on the peripheries, bringing with him medicine, musical instruments and a message of love for the people who live there.

Francis flew aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 transport plane from Port Moresby to Vanimo, on the northwest coast of the South Pacific nation. There, Francis met with the local Catholic community and missionaries from his native Argentina who have been ministering to them.

For an Argentine pope who marveled in 2013 at having been chosen from the “end of the Earth” to lead the church, it was a voyage to another end of the Earth on the longest, farthest trip of Francis' pontificate.

Francis has previously traveled to the edge of the Arctic (to apologize to the Inuit people for church abuses), and into the Peruvian Amazon (to draw attention to its plight), and to the plains of Ur, Iraq (to boost Christian-Muslim ties). But even by his standards, Sunday's trip to remote Vanimo was extraordinary.

An estimated 20,000 people were singing and dancing on the field in front of the Vanimo cathedral when Francis arrived, and he promptly put on a feathered headdress that had been presented to him.

In remarks from a raised stage, Francis praised the church workers who go out to try to spread the faith. But he urged the residents of Vanimo to work at home at being good to one another. He urged them to be like an orchestra, so that all members of the community come together harmoniously to overcome rivalries.

Doing so, he said, would help to “drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviors 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.”

It was a reference to the tribal violence over land and other disputes that have long characterized the country’s culture but have grown more lethal in recent years. Francis arrived in Papua New Guinea to urge an end to the violence, including gender-based violence, and for a sense of civic responsibility to prevail.

Francis echoed the theme on Monday morning in a final encounter with young people in Port Moresby, the capital, before flying to East Timor on the next leg of his trip.

Francis was elected pope largely on the strength of a speech he gave to his fellow cardinals in 2013 about the need for the church to go out to the “peripheries” where people need God most. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring instead far-flung communities where Catholics are often a minority.

Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill of being remote. It is near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, where the jungle meets the sea, and is for the most part only reachable by plane or boat.

There is a small airport, but no ambulift, the wheelchair elevator Francis needs to get on and off planes. Because of that, and the donated and purchased cargo Francis was bringing in, the C-130 was used so he could be wheeled on and off using the back ramp.

Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to serve as a missionary in Japan but was prevented from going because of his poor health. As pope, he often holds up missionaries as models for the church.

The Rev. Martin Prado, an Argentine missionary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word religious order, was responsible for inviting the pope to Vanimo.

As he waited for Francis to arrive Sunday, he recounted for reporters the “crazy” story of how he accompanied a group of Vanimo parishioners to Rome in 2019, and ended up scoring an audience with the pope after his parishioners insisted that they wanted to give him some gifts.

Prado, who has spent the past 10 of his 36 years working as a missionary in Vanimo, said he wrote a note, left it for the pope at the Vatican hotel where he lives, and the next day received an email from Francis' secretary inviting his group in.

“I invited him, but he wanted to come,” Prado said. “He has a big heart for people. It’s not just words: He does what he says.”

Prado said some people deep in the interior of the diocese, in the jungle where cars have yet to arrive, need clothes, and for them a plate of rice and tuna fish “is glorious.”

Francis brought about a ton of medicine, clothing, musical instruments and toys, the Vatican said. Prado said Francis was also helping to build a new secondary school. He said half of the children of the diocese are unable to go to high school because there simply aren’t enough spots for them.

The event had a very Argentine flair to it: On the stage was a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, the patron of Argentina who is particularly dear to Francis and whose name also graces the local girls' school. When Francis met privately after the event with the nuns and missionary priests, they served him mate, the Argentine tea.

There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth nation believed to be around 10 million. The Catholics practice the faith along with traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animism and sorcery.

Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor and then wraps up his visit in Singapore later in the week.