Pastoral Visit of Pope Francis to Korea, Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Aug 16, 2014.
Apr 16 2024
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Southeast Asia beginning of September, making stops in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore. According to recent statistics, one in nine Catholics worldwide resides in Asia.
While Catholicism is a significant minority on the densely populated Asian continent, its followers nonetheless play a substantial role in the global Church. Pope Francis is set to meet with Asian Catholics during a regional tour that will last about 10 days and may include visits to Vietnam, in addition to the countries previously mentioned by authorities from the first two.
The Holy See Press Office announced Apr 12 that Pope Francis will visit four Asian countries – Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore – Sep 2-13. Pope Francis travels first to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where he will land on Sep 3 and remain until Sep 6. He will then fly to visit Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea, and Vanimo on Sep 6-9. His next stop will be in Dili, capital of Timor-Leste, where he will stay Sep 9-11. Francis will then travel to Singapore for a 3-day visit before returning to Rome.
Special papal attention to Asia
Having previously visited South Korea in 2014, the Philippines in 2015, Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2017, Thailand and Japan in 2019, Iraq in 2021, Mongolia in 2023, this upcoming trip further underscores the Argentine pope’s focused interest in the world’s most populous continent—home to over 4 billion people—where the expression of Catholicism varies greatly from country to country.
In nations such as China and Japan, Catholics make up less than 1% of the population, and in India less than 1.5%. However, in the Philippines, Catholics constitute about 80% of its 116 million people.
11% of all Baptized members of the Universal Church
Vatican statistics from 2020 to 2021 indicate a nearly 1% increase in the number of Catholics in Asia, who now represent approximately 3.3% of the continent’s total population. This relatively modest figure highlights Catholicism’s minority status in Asia, even though Catholics comprise 17.67% of the global population. With Asia being the most populated continent, Asian Catholics account for nearly 11% of all baptized members of the Universal Church. In contrast, 19.3% of the world’s Catholics reside in Africa, about 48% in the Americas, and 20% in Europe.
If Pope Francis’ trip proceeds as planned, he will encounter vastly different circumstances of Catholicism. In East Timor, 98% of its 1.5 million residents are Catholic, while in Papua New Guinea, Catholics represent about 26% of its 9.8 million population. In Indonesia, a nation of nearly 280 million people, Catholics make up less than 3%. Lastly, if the pope also visits Vietnam, he will engage with a vibrant community that comprises about 6% of the 105 million Vietnamese. – La Croix International
